Juventus reclaimed their place in Serie A after one season in
the second division following their 5-1 win at Arezzo on
Saturday.
The famous Turin club were demoted to Serie B last summer for
their part in the Italian match-fixing scandal.
Alessandro Del Piero and Giorgio Chiellini both scored twice for
the visitors, while French striker David Trezeguet grabbed the
other goal.
Juve coach Didier Deschamps was delighted to see the club, who
have won 27 Serie A titles and two European Cups - back in Italy's
top division.
"I am really pleased for the players and I am proud to have
taken Juve back where they belong," he said.
"This promotion cannot be compared with some of the club's other
achievements in the past, but it will be part of our history and
it's right to celebrate it."
Despite media reports that Deschamps may not be coach next
season due to an alleged fall-out with some board members, Juve's
general manager Jean-Claude Blanc insisted the former France
international would stay.
"Today is a day of joy and a new journey starts and it continues
with Deschamps," he said. "I've always said it.
"There are no disagreements. Deschamps stays with us."
The scandal, known as 'Calciopoli', involved five Serie A clubs,
referees and high-ranked Italian football federation (FIGC)
officials.
As the club at the centre of the furore, Juventus received the
severest punishment.
The club were stripped of the league titles they won in 2004-05
and 2005-06 and denied entry into the Champions League. They were
also dedcuted nine points for their Serie B campaign.
Their demotion led to the departure of many of their star
players, including French defender Lilian Thuram, wingback Gianluca
Zambrotta, French midfielder Patrick Vieira, Swedish striker Zlatan
Ibrahimovic and Italian World Cup-winning captain Fabio
Cannavaro.
Coach Fabio Capello also jumped ship, returning to Spain for a
second spell with Real Madrid.
However, Italy keeper Gianluigi Buffon, Trezeguet and Czech
midfielder Pavel Nedved demonstrated their loyalty by sticking it
out in a lower division, while former Juve midfielder Deschamps was
hired to replace Capello.
Deschamps understood the need to add youth to experience and
placed his trust in the feet of several youngsters, including
striker Raffaele Palladino, midfielder Marco Marchionni and
defender Federico Balzaretti.
The match-fixing scandal erupted last May when newpapers
published transcripts of telephone conversations in which former
Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi tells Pierluigi Pairetto,
head of the Italian referees' association and member of UEFA's
referees committee, which officials he wants assigned to certain
league and European matches.
The conversations revealed that Moggi and fellow director
Antonio Giraudo effectively controlled the pool of referees who
ensured Juventus benefited from their decisions.
The referees would overlook fouls committed by Juve players and
disallow perfectly good goals scored against his team.
Moggi also planned ahead, ordering referees to book or send off
talented players of teams who would be facing Juventus the
following week, so that they would be suspended for the Juve
match.
(China Daily via AFP May 21, 2007)