小强

ROME (AFP) - Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio will be relegated to the Italian second division, according to a report in an Italian newspaper.

Italy's premier sports newspaper the Gazetta dello Sport claimed it was revealing the long-anticipated ruling in Italy's match-fixing scandal, due to be given on Friday evening.

It also said AC Milan will be allowed to stay in the top flight but will be penalised by a points deduction and booted out of next season's Champions League.


"The verdict will be this: Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio will be relegated to division two," said Gazetta.

"AC Milan will stay in the first division but will not be allowed to take part in the Champions League."

The newspaper did not give away its sources but claimed it also knew what point deductions each team would receive.

Juventus will be docked 20 points from the start of their Serie B campaign with Fiorentina penalised 10 and Lazio six or seven.

Milan will lose 10 to 15 points from their Serie A challenge, which would hand a huge advantage in the title race to city rivals Inter and even Roma.

A statement from the Italian football federation confirmed that the disciplinary tribunal president Cesare Ruperto will deliver the verdict to the teams from a luxury hotel room in Rome on Friday night.

However, the statement denied an earlier claim from Gazetta that the verdict would be read out on their sister television station.

There was no indication when the verdict will be made public, though.

The teams will then have three days to appeal before a federal court of arbitration and a final decision will be given by July 24.

The scandal broke after transcripts of former Juve general manager telling the head of Italy's refereeing commision what officials he wanted appointed to specific games were published in the Italian media.

As well as the four clubs, 26 individuals are on trial for sporting fraud.