Juve’s title win overshadowed by match-fixing scandal
Fabio Capello’s side finished the season three points ahead of second-placed AC Milan who won 2-1 at home to Roma. Fiorentina’s 2-0 win over Chievo assured the Florence club of fourth place and a spot in the qualifying round of next season’s Champions League along with third-placed Inter Milan.
Juve and Milan will go straight into the group stage of the Champions League — unless ongoing match-fixing investigations result in a change to the final league table.
Champions Juve are facing a series of investigations into allegations of match-fixing and, if found guilty, could be stripped of their last two titles and demoted to Serie B.
The scandal which has rocked Italian football has focused on telephone intercepts from last season featuring discussions about refereeing appointments between Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi and football federation officials. Moggi appeared live on television shortly after the game to announce he was resigning from his position with the club.
Fans made their feelings on the affair known yesterday with sarcastic slogans and attacks on Juventus and the federation displayed on banners at stadiums across Italy.
“Juve are magic — watch them disappear from Serie A,” read one banner raised by Inter Milan fans watching their side’s 2-2 draw at Cagliari.
Just before kick-off, Milan owner and outgoing Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called for his club, who have finished second to Juve in the last two seasons, to be awarded the two titles.
A 23rd minute goal from French forward David Trezeguet put Juventus on their way and Alessandro Del Piero made sure of the win in injury time.
In Spain, Zinedine Zidane says Florentino Perez’s division of the Real Madrid squad into separate classes depending on the importance of the players had devastating consequences for morale at the club. The former Real Madrid president famously claimed that his recruitment policy at the club was based on “Zidanes or Pavons”, supplementing big-name players like the Frenchman with products from the youth team such as centre-back Francisco Pavon.
But Zidane said that such talk and the labelling of some players such as himself, Ronaldo and David Beckham as “Galacticos” had created severe divisions in the dressing room.
“I think it was a shame that people talked about Zidanes and Pavons because it’s clear that it divided the team,” the midfielder said.
“That was very bad for the team and the people who talked about ‘Galacticos’ and all that created big problems for us.”
Zidane also said that the collection of big egos created further problems for the team. “The problem is that there were a lot of very strong personalities in the dressing room and that damaged communication. We didn’t talk straight to each other as people thought they might upset each other.”
Alaves were relegated from the Primera Liga despite beating Deportivo La Coruna at home while, at the other end of the table, UEFA Cup winners Sevilla kept the race for the fourth and final Champions League spot going with a victory against champions Barcelona.
Alaves knew they needed to win and Espanyol needed either to lose or draw if they were going to stay in the top flight for next season.
Alaves kept their half of the bargain with a 1-0 triumph against Deportivo, secured through Rodolfo Bodipo’s 78th-minute goal.
That result meant a draw would not have been good enough for Espanyol against Real Sociedad – but it appeared it would end that way when their game went into added-on time still scoreless.
However, Ferran Corominas ruined Alaves’ hopes by grabbing a last-gasp winner for the Barcelona-based side.
Meanwhile, Sevilla drew level on points with fourth-placed Osasuna by making it a successful week on both domestic and European fronts with a 3-2 win over Barca.
The Andalucians, fresh from their midweek 4-0 mauling of Middlesbrough in the final of the UEFA Cup, forged into a two-goal lead thanks to goals by Daniel Alves and Carrion Aitor Ocio, the latter coming from the penalty spot.
But Barca, who were reduced to 10 men in injury time because of Gabri’s sending-off, restored parity before the break when Santiago Ezquerro and Sylvinho scored in the space of a minute.
Kepa Blanco’s 76th-minute header ended up settling the contest although Sevilla are still behind Osasuna as a result of the latter’s better head-to-head record.
Lille booked France’s third Champions League spot, while Lens qualified for the UEFA Cup as the Ligue 1 season came to an end. However, champions Lyon underlined their dominance of the French top flight with an 8-1 thrashing of Le Mans.
Galatasaray became Turkish league champions yesterday, snatching the title away from their major Istanbul rivals Fenerbahce after lagging behind them nearly all the season.
On the final day of the season, the ex-UEFA Cup champions beat Kayserispor 3-0 and advanced to 83 points thanks to two goals from Sabri and one from Serbian midfielder Sasa Ilic.
Galatasaray’s players and fans in their Ali Sami Yen stadium had to wait 15 minutes to celebrate as Fenerbahce played out an extended period of injury time at Denizlispor.
Fenerbahce had needed to win to secure their third successive title but the match ended in a 1-1 draw, leaving Fenerbahce second on 81 points.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
