Conte plea bargain rejected!

By Football Italia staff

In a shock move, the FIGC judges in the betting trial have rejected plea bargains from Antonio Conte and Siena, but Torino and Varese accept one-point penalties.

The trial into the match-fixing scandal began this morning with FIGC prosecutor Stefano Palazzi putting forward his requested sentences to the judges. Several were plea bargains, which the panel was widely expected to accept and ratify this afternoon.

However, the judges sensationally rejected the plea bargains as “not suited” to the charges and turned down almost all of them.

As already reported, Juventus Coach Conte offered a plea bargain of three months and a €200,000 fine set to go to charity.

Conte was charged with failing to report an attempted fix to authorities while he was Coach of Siena in 2010-11.

In the terms of the rejected plea bargain, he would’ve been unable to sit on the bench, enter the locker room or give interviews on match day until November 1, though Conte could continue day-to-day training.

The same accusations were levelled at Siena, who offered a plea bargain of a five-point penalty and a €40,000 fine.

Torino and Serie B side Varese proposed a one-point penalty with €30,000 fine and these were accepted by the judges.

Juventus lawyers have reacted angrily and are trying to have the whole trial scrapped.

They have requested that the judges be recused from the case, because by rejecting the plea bargain “you have already made your decisions and you therefore cannot judge in a trial what you have already judged. The Corte Costituzionale in 1992 ruled a judge cannot rule after he rejected an agreed plea bargain.”

The other requests rejected by the judges were:

Angelo Alessio (Juventus assistant manager), two-month ban and €60,000 fine. Giorgio D’Urbano (Siena fitness coach), four-month ban. Dario Passoni (Bolzano) and Mirko Poloni (Albinoleffe assistant), four-month ban. Marco Savorani (Siena goalkeeping coach), four-month ban.

The plea bargains accepted were:

Filippo Carobbio, four-month ban on top of previous 20-month suspension after he confessed. Carlo Gervasoni, three-month and 20 day ban on top of previous 20-month suspension after confessing. Marcelo Larrondo, three-month and 20 day ban plus €30,000 fine. Daniele Faggiano (ex-Siena director of sport), four-month ban. Da Costa (Sampdoria), three month ban and €30,000 fine. Luigi Sala (ex-Milan and Bari defender), two-year ban. Cristian Stellini, two year ban and €50,000 fine.

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