Italian court cancels jail verdicts against former Juventus bosses

Rome: Jail verdicts against former top bosses of Italian football club Juventus in a 2006 match-fixing scandal were declared timed out on Tuesday and hence the judgments were cancelled by the Italian supreme court, local reports said.

Former Juventus general director Luciano Moggi and former Juventus chief executive Antonio Giraudo had originally been sentenced to five years and four months and one year and eight months in jail, reports Xinhua.

"After nine years, the trial has resolved nothing, it has only created so many expenses," Moggi said on Tuesday.

Both of them were accused of having collaborated with Italian football federation officials to influence refereeing assignments at some of the Juventus games and later were banned from football for life.

A total of 26 people including football managers and referees were allegedly implicated in the so-called "Calciopoli" match-fixing scandal. However, most of them were ultimately acquitted as their verdicts were declared timed out.

"Calciopoli" extended to various Italian teams, but Juventus was the worst hit as was stripped of two Serie A titles and demoted to the second tier of the country's football league competition as a result of the scandal, where it remained a season.