Calciopoli Scandal: Why Juventus were relegated in 2006?

The Calciopoli scandal remains a stain on Juventus’ legacy

When Juventus were handed a 15-point deduction for conducting illegal financial activities (a decision subsequently overturned), it was by no means the first time they’d been in trouble with the authorities.

Instead of finishing in the top four, Juventus dropped down to seventh and just scraped through to the Europa Conference League play-off round, the final European spot in Serie A.

What happened in 2006?

Less than two months after winning Serie A, Italy’s most successful club Juventus suffered the humiliation of relegation to the second tier in 2006 having been found guilty of match-fixing. It was the scandal that rocked Italian football.

One such accusation was that Juventus players performed far better than any other team because they took performance-enhancing medication. It was this accusation that got the Italian government prosecutors interested. As a result, they started monitoring the class of several top officials from all the top clubs and Serie A.

The investigation found two things: there was no doping case, and what was happening was perhaps far worse. In their phone calls, they got clear evidence that Serie A games were being fixed by pressuring the referees to give favourable decisions towards a specific team in a game.

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Aftermath of Calciopoli

The aftermath of Calciopoli – as the scandal was referred to in Italy – also saw the Old Lady stripped of their 2004-05 and 2005-06 league titles, leaving the disgraced institution of Italian football in complete and utter disarray.

At the time, Juventus possessed one of the best squads in Europe with the likes of Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Patrick Vieira, Pavel Nedved and Zlatan Ibrahimovic lining up on the field, while Fabio Capello directed them from the dugout.

However, following their relegation, other elite clubs on the continent began circling like vultures around some of Juve’s prized assets, many of whom had won the World Cup with Italy less than a week before relegation was officially confirmed.

Not all of Juventus’ stellar names departed the sinking ship, though, with Buffon, Giorgio Chiellini, Nedved, Mauro Camoranesi, Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet commendably opting to stay with their troubled employers and steer them back to the top-flight.

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