Another day, another result in the Italian Serie A scandal as the four clubs learn of their new results following the appeals process. The four Serie A clubs found guilty of match-fixing were hoping for leniency from the judges. The four clubs, Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina were all found guilty by the Italian football federation of committing sporting fraud in the 2004-05 season. BBC Sport

Juventus (who were stripped of their last two league titles in 2005-06 and 2004-05 and denied entry into the Champions League, have been relegated to the second division with a 30-point deduction for the start of the new season. However following the appeal they have only been docked 17 points for the new season BUT do still begin in Serie B.

Lazio and Fiorentina who had also been demoted to Serie B have been re-instated to Serie A but have had their points deductions increased from 12 to 19 for Fiorentina and seven to 11 for Lazio. AC Milan remain in Series A. I find the whole thing preposterous to be honest and you have to wonder if there wasn’t anything underhanded in the appeals process for Lazio and Fiorentina to get away with murder.

Despite Italy winning the World Cup earlier this month, very few people who love football wanted Italy to win following the allegations of match fixing in Serie A – why can’t these big teams just play bloody football and if you win you win, lose you get b*****ed !!! Ok I know we are talking millions of Euro’s here but there have to be standards. Only time will tell if the reputation of the league in Italy has been tarnished for ever or as I think, we will all forget about it all within two seasons !!!