FIFA threatens all Italian clubs with ban if Juve appeals

[MrBug708]

It's good to see that someone takes match fixing seriously.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=376843&cc=5901

GENEVA -- FIFA could ban World Cup champion Italy and all Italian clubs from international competition if Juventus challenges in state court the sanctions it received in the country's match-fixing scandal.

FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said Wednesday that forcing a decision before a state court would interfere with the autonomy of the soccer world and undermine the sport's arbitration system.

In a letter sent by president Sepp Blatter to the Italian federation on Tuesday, FIFA said it was prepared to ban all Italian clubs -- as well as the national team -- from international soccer if Juventus goes ahead with its legal action.


Beatdown.

[vex]

Awesome. Good to hear.

[Critch]

Woohoo, if Italy get banned then Scotland's chances of qualifying for the European Championships go from "snowball in hell" to "very slim".

If France and Ukraine get banned too, we may well finish second in the group.

[MalcPow]

Wow. I support the harsh stance toward cheating, but I don't see how FIFA could really do this without facing a pretty big lawsuit. Juventus can't appeal to the legal system of its country over what it believes to be a legal issue? And if they do, we're going to ban everyone and everything from that country? That's a little absurd. Hopefully somebody did some serious thinking before they went in front of the cameras with that.

[vex]

Well sure they can appeal. But if they want to play under FIFA they have to play by FIFA's rules. Pretty simple imo.

[MalcPow]

Well sure they can appeal. But if they want to play under FIFA they have to play by FIFA's rules. Pretty simple imo.

Yeah I followed the link and read the whole article, looks like they're pretty covered actually. At least someone had the foresight to realize that some countries' legal systems can be more corrupt than their soccer federations. :)

[vex]

lol, true that.

[BrianD]

This does seem overly harsh, but if you want to be part of an international federation, I guess you have to live by the rules of the federation. It seems pretty unfair to other Italian clubs who aren't part of this mess, but I guess it forces the Italian clubs to police their own.

[stevew]

Italy will not accept a banning. This whole appeal can't be stopped.

[Ryan S]

It's good to see that someone takes match fixing seriously.

I think FIFA is more worried about the courts getting involved in football rather than the match fixing. They banned Greek teams from all International and European competitions earlier in the summer until the Greek government backed down.

[daedalus]

Italy will not accept a banning. This whole appeal can't be stopped.My apology for going off-topic but at my first glance at this comment, I thought it was going to say:

Italy will not accept a banning. Italy will come back stronger than ever.

Or something of the sort.

I, uhh, got nothing. I think.

[Critch]

Juventus have announced that they are going to go ahead with taking their appeal to court. They say they have a duty to protect their shareholders.

Looks like the Italian Federation are going to try and avoid any action from FIFA by imposing more penalties on Juventus themselves. Which Juventus will probably challenge in court...