CONI verdicts expected

The CONI Court of Arbitration is expected to hand out its verdicts later on Friday, as Juventus, Lazio, Fiorentina and Milan will discover whether their appeals to reduce their match-fixing punishments have been successful.

The four clubs were all punished by the Federal Court on July 25 for their part in the summer Calciopoli scandal and decided to present their appeal to the CONI Arbitration Court, the highest grade of justice in Italian sports.

The clubs agreed to keep the dispute within the realm of sporting justice after receiving “signals of willingness” from sports officials to conclude the situation fairly.

The final decision should be revealed in the evening after the stock market closes, although a CONI spokesman confirmed that there is no official information of when the verdicts will be handed out.

Juventus were stripped of their last two Serie A titles, demoted to Serie B and had a 30-point penalty reduced to 17 after a first appeal. Fiorentina, Lazio and Milan escaped relegation to the lower League but were docked points in Serie A; 19 for Fiorentina, 11 for Lazio and eight for Milan.

While CONI insists nothing has been decided in advance, speculation in the La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper says that Juve will be given back seven points. Likewise, Lazio, who were deducted 30 points from last season's Serie A total and missed out on a place in the UEFA Cup this campaign, are also likely to be given back seven points. According to the paper, CONI will be less forgiving with Fiorentina and AC Milan.

Reggina were also punished in the second wave of trials and started the campaign on -15, but that case will be examined in November. Serie B minnows Arezzo started with a 6-point deduction.