ROME, July 14 — A sports tribunal demoted Juventus, Italy’s most storied soccer club and reigning champion, along with clubs Fiorentina and Lazio from the country’s top league and slapped each with varying point penalties for their role in a game-fixing scandal that has transfixed the country.
In Italy’s worst soccer scandal ever and one of the worst in recent sports memory, justice came swiftly and forcefully — though the verdict was not as severe as expected. AC Milan, the fourth team accused of involvement, will remain in the top league but with severe point penalties at the start of next season. And an array of league officials, team managers and referees received varying suspensions and fines for their participation in the scheme. Juventus will start next season in the second-tier league known as Serie B with negative 30 points, the equivalent of 10 losses. The tribunal also revoked the championships that Juventus won in the 2004-5 and 2005-6 seasons.
Fiorentina and Lazio — also relegated to Serie B — will start the season with negative 12 and 7 points, respectively. Milan, for its part, was spared relegation from the top league, Serie A, but will start next season with negative 15 points and will not participate in the European Champions Cup.
The tribunal’s verdict was delivered this evening by its lead judge, Cesare Ruperto, a week after proceedings wrapped up — and just days after Italy won the World Cup. Indeed, the highly anticipated ruling comes as a sobering rebuttal to the euphoria that has engulfed Italy since it defeated France in the final on Sunday.
Luciano Moggi, a former Juventus general manager, and Antonio Giraudo, the former Juventus chief executive, who were believed to be the architects of the game-fixing received five-year suspensions and additional fines.
Since May, Italians have been captivated by the scandal that was revealed after telephone conversations between Mr. Moggi and an official responsible for refereeing assignments were printed on the front pages of the country’s largest newspaper.
Mr. Moggi and Mr. Giraudo were accused of creating a network of federation officials, team owners, referees and journalists to influence refereeing assignments and thus the outcome of league games. Both Mr. Moggi and Mr. Giraudo resigned in May, along with the club’s entire board.
Following Italy’s World Cup victory, in which millions of jubilant Italians poured into the streets, there was speculation among politicians and in the Italian press that the sentencing should be dulled if not altogether annulled.
While stinging to some, the sentence fell short of that sought by the lead prosecutor, Stefano Palazzi, during the trial.
Adriano Galliani, the vice president of AC Milan and former soccer league president, received a one-year suspension, while Diego Della Valle, the president and owner of Fiorentina, received a four-year suspension. His brother, Andrea Della Valle, received a three-year suspension, and Lazio’s president, Claudio Lotito, was suspended for three and a half years. A number of referees, including Massimo De Santis, were also suspended for varying lengths of time.
Defense attorneys now have three days to make their appeals. A new tribunal is expected to convene as early as Thursday. A final ruling will be made quickly, as Italy’s soccer federation has to declare who will represent the country in the European Champions League and UEFA tournaments by July 27.
The press coverage leading up to the verdict had captivated Italians and permeated all aspects of life here.
Following a proposal of amnesty by the Italian justice minister, Clemente Mastella, politicians broke ranks on the question of clemency or amnesty for the teams and those involved not so much by left-right party affiliation but by allegiances to individual clubs.
Piero Fassino, president of the Democrats of the Left and a longtime Juventus fan, suggested some form of court clemency. while a center-right National Alliance senator, Maurizio Gasparri who is a Roma fan, defied former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi by calling for a strong sentence.
Mr. Berlusconi, who owns AC Milan, lobbied this week against a demotion for any of teams and said more time was needed to reach a fair verdict.
The Juventus president, Giovanni Cobolli, is quoted in the Italian press as saying that the ruling was “unheard of” and that he would challenge it.
Fiorentina called it “profoundly unjust” in a statement on the team’s Web site. “We will fight with every means in every appropriate forum,” the statement added.
“It is a sentence that should be respected and that could have been much worse,” said Antonio DiPietro, Italy’s minister of infrastructure and former prosecutor who rose to fame during the political bribery scandals known as “tangentopoli,” quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA.
The question now will be which of the star players from the four teams, if any, will stay put or seek refuge in a foreign league or with another Italian club.
A total of 13 players from Italian championship team are members of the four teams and there is rampant speculation within the Italian press that a number of players may have one foot out the door. Turin-based La Stampa newspaper reported that the two stars of the Italian national team —
defenseman Fabio Cannavaro and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, both of whom play for Juventus — are being heavily courted by a Spanish club, Real Madrid, and an English team, Arsenal, respectively.
The exodus out of Turin started last week when Fabio Cappello resigned from Juventus, opting for safer pastures as the head coach of Real Madrid.
“I think that the players that play for the national team after having won are going to be very sought after by top teams, and probably most of them will leave and go abroad,” said Riccardo Tafa the managing director of a Bologna-based sports marketing agency, RTR Sports. Mr. Tafa said business is booming after the World Cup victory and thus he remains optimistic about Italian soccer even after the verdict.
“In the beginning it has been a shock but it is only going to last a few months,” he said. “People will come back to their passion and, having won the World Cup, the process could be much faster because now there is enthusiasm about the national team and about the players. People will adjust and be into football as they have always been.”
The financial ramifications of the ruling are being felt. Italy’s largest private broadcaster Mediaset has already notified the league of its desire to renegotiate its contract to broadcast the highlights of games, and failed to pay the first installment called for by the contract.
The decision will also affect Italian state broadcaster RAI — which has rights to broadcast the Champions Cup — and Sky Italia, which owns the satellite rights for Italian league games.
A sports consultancy agency, Imagine and Sport, estimated the Juventus alone could lose 90 million euros, about $115 million, over the next two seasons.
Prosecutors in Naples, Rome, Parma and Turin are conducting separate criminal probes into sports fraud, illegal betting and false bookkeeping.
Aany indictments, however, could take months to be issued.