Reports: Giraudo sentenced to three years

Published Dec. 19, 2009 1:34 a.m. ET

foxsports

Former Juventus chief executive Antonio Giraudo has been sentenced to three years in prison on Monday for his role in a match-fixing scandal that shook Italian soccer, news reports said.

The ANSA and Apcom news agencies said Giraudo was convicted on charges of criminal association aimed at committing sports fraud by a court in Naples, Italy.

Giraudo was one of the figures at the center of the 2006 scandal, together with former Juventus executive Luciano Moggi. Moggi is also on trial in Naples, along with other defendants, on similar charges. Giraudo was tried separately in a fast-track trial at his request.

Moggi and Giraudo were banned from football for five years by a sports court for influencing the outcome of matches. They deny wrongdoing.

Juventus was stripped of its 2005 and '06 Serie A titles and relegated to the second division with a nine-point penalty. It immediately won promotion back to Serie A.

The scandal was the most widespread corruption case in the history of Italy's biggest sport. Besides Juventus, three other big clubs - AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina - were penalized, as were Reggina and Arezzo.

At the heart of the scandal were allegations that the two created a network of contacts with soccer federation officials to influence refereeing assignments and arrange for key players in other teams to be booked ahead of matches with Juventus.