Scandal overshadows Juve's bid to win 29th Italian title

Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were also drawn into an affair which appears to reach into every aspect of calcio. As in 1980, when Italy was last beset by scandal, the prospect of compulsory relegation is being raised.

Four separate investigations, in Turin, Rome, Parma and Naples, are now ongoing. Yesterday the national federation's offices, and those of the referees' association, both in the capital, were raided by the carabinieri investigating the GEA management company, which controls almost 200 players and coaches. It is headed by Alessandro Moggi, the son of Juve's general manager, Luciano Moggi, and employs Davide Lippi, the son of the Italy coach, Marcello Lippi. Yesterday Lippi denied that he had been pressured to select GEA players for the national team.

The Naples investigation follows telephone taps of leading officials and is considering charges of "criminal association" and "sporting fraud". This could lead to clubs being relegated, as was the case 26 years ago when Milan and Lazio were demoted following a match-fixing and illegal gambling investigation. Two senior officials of Juventus are among 41 people who are under investigation.

Milan, the only other team who can win the Serie A title, and Lazio, feature in the investigation of 19 Serie A matches from last season which could have been rigged.

Diego Dalle Valle, the man who rebuilt Fiorentina after the club's collapse, was also linked with the investigation, along with his brother Andrea. Moggi and the former president of the Italian football federation, Franco Carraro - who resigned on Monday - are already being investigated, as is Massimo De Santis, who is due to represent Italy at the World Cup. The Turin inquiry centres on Moggi and Antonio Giraudo. This week telephone taps were published in which they discussed refereeing appointments with senior federation officials.

On Thursday the board of directors of Juventus resigned en masse ahead of a shareholders' meeting on 29 June. Turin magistrates have put Giraudo under investigation for possible false accounting relating to transfers. Shares in Juventus have dropped 15 per cent since Wednesday's close

The Parma investigation centres on illegal betting. Gianluigi Buffon, the Juventus goalkeeper, was named by La Stampa as one of four players involved. Both the newspaper and Juventus are owned by the influential Agnelli family.

The crisis led the incoming Prime Minister Romano Prodi to suggest that a political "commissar" be put in charge of the federation.

Many Italians will focus on San Siro, not to see if Milan can snatch the title but, to see if, with the World Cup looming, Francesco Totti makes his first start for three months.