Juve lawyer: We deserved C!

Juventus lawyer Cesare Zaccone believes that the Turin giants were fortunate to escape being demoted to Serie C for their part in Calciopoli scandal.

The Old Lady’s board held an intense meeting in Turin this afternoon regarding the relegation of the team and their financial problems. President Cobolli Gigli was present, as well as chief executive Jean-Claude Blanc, Zaccone and all the minor shareholders of the team.

The Bianconeri’s board was attacked by the shareholders for the club’s position in court during the trial. The shareholders believe that it was the wrong decision when they asked for Serie B, and admitted being guilty – but Zaccone clearly had a different take on things.

“Probably someone in this meeting doesn’t understand the situation we were in,” said the lawyer.

“The dossier that was given to us included so many infractions made by Luciano Moggi and Antonio Giraudo, who were representing the club at the time. There wasn’t much to do considering their illegal actions, and Juventus was inevitably responding for them. Our situation was tragic, what could we do? We couldn’t defend Moggi or Giraudo. There were so many accusations against us and the obvious punishment was Serie C. So we asked for the Serie B without penalisation.”

Zaccone still thinks that Juventus made the best decision they could in the situation. “We deserved Serie C, so being put in Serie B was a good result – we did it to make Juve survive,” he concluded.

Cobolli Gigli had little to say after the meeting, apart from offering a statement of defiance. "I understand the shareholders, but we are trying our best to bring Juve back to the level we should be at," said the chief.