Viola threaten TAR appeal

Fiorentina have threatened to appeal to the civil justice court if their 19-point reduction is not cancelled by the Italian Olympic Committee's (CONI) Court of Arbitration.

The Viola presented their appeal on Thursday – following Juventus, Lazio and Milan’s hearings the day before – in an attempt to see their punishments reduced.

“Fiorentina are not guilty of any wrongdoing, that is why we do not want to hear the word discount – we want the punishment to be cancelled,” said Alberto Bruni, the club’s lawyer.

“I have trust in the court of arbitration and we gave them all the documents we prepared. For the first time I felt that I was facing people who were willing to listen to us, as this had never happened in front of the CAF and the Federal Court. If our request is not granted, we are willing to continue our battle and cannot exclude that we will appeal to the TAR civil court. I hope that will not be the case, but we are ready to fight if needs be.”

The court is expected to hand out the verdicts by the end of the month and rumours suggest that all the deficits might be decreased.

Juventus, demoted to Serie B with a deduction of 17 points, are set to receive a 10-point reduction, whereas Milan (started the season on -8), Lazio (-11) and Fiorentina (-19) could be granted a three, five and eight-point reduction respectively to the penalties that were inflicted in July.