Ouch.
Rome, Italy: Italian Serie A football clubs Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina have been demoted to Serie B after a massive match fixing scandal has come to light. 13 of the 23 players from the Italian national team that just won the World Cup are on those teams.
For the socccer-impaired, European soccer leagues have a demotion system in which the team with the lowest point totals in Serie A gets moved to Serie B and the highest Serie B team gets moved up to Serie A to play with the big boys. Imagine if the last place team in the American League was moved to Triple-A at the end of the season and the winner of the Triple-A world series took its place. Cool system.
Italian soccer is hosed. These world-class players won't play in Serie B and Juventus and Fiorentina can't afford them with all of the financial hits they are taking in this scandal. And if you figure that not only has Juventus been moved down to Serie B but ALSO been penalized 30 points AND barred from European play for a year, the club is in serious, serious trouble.
The sentence for Juventus marks the first demotion since its founding in 1897. The Turin-based powerhouse has won 29 league titles - including the 2005 and 2006 titles stripped by Friday's verdict - two European Champions League titles, four Italian Supercups, two European Supercups and two Toyota or Intercontinental Cups.
1897 and they have never been demoted.
I am reconsidering my subscription to the Fox Soccer Channel. With out Juventus and Italia, I will be forced to actually pick an English Premier League team to root for. And no, it will NOT be Manchester United.
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