2005–06 Serie A

In the 2005–06 season, Serie A, the major professional football league in Italian, was contested for the second year in a row by 20 teams. The league commenced on August 28, 2005 and finished on May 14, 2006. While Juventus were originally declared champions, this was later revoked due to the 2006 Calciopoli Scandal with Internazionale on July 26, 2006 declared champions by the Italian Football Federation.

Rule changes

Before the 2005–06 season if two or more teams were tied in points for first place, for only one spot in a European tournament, or in the relegation zone, teams would play tie-breaking games after the season was over to determine which team would be champion, or be awarded a European tournament spot, or be saved or relegated. However, 2005–06 saw the introduction of new rules. If two or more teams ended the season with the same number of points, the ordering was determined by their head-to-head records. If two or more teams had the same total points and head-to-head records, goal difference became the decisive factor.

Scudetto winner and match-fixing scandal

The 29th scudetto originally won by Juventus thanks to a decisive 2–0 away victory against Reggina on the final day of the season was later awarded to Internazionale after Juventus were found guilty of, and punished for, their involvement in major scandal involving its board of administration and its managing director Luciano Moggi. A number of wiretappings involving Luciano Moggi and some other leading figures of Italian football shows how Moggi managed and arranged several matches at the very least during 2004–05 season. This led to official FIGC tribunals being opened in both Rome and Naples to investigate the matter. Three other clubs–Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio–were implicated in the scandal when it broke, with Inter later being linked to the scandal but eventually being fully exonerated. Juventus, Fiorentina, Lazio and Milan were officially charged, while Lecce, Reggina, Siena, Empoli and Serie B side Arezzo have been the targets of new investigations 1.

After an initial trial, Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio were relegated to Serie B for the 2006/2007 season with additional points penalties for the following Serie B season, whilst Milan were deducted 44 points from their 2005/06 tally, leaving them with a mid-table finish for the 2005/2006 season. The initial trial also stripped the last two Serie A championships from Juventus while Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were all removed from entry to all European competition for the 2006/2007 (due to their new Serie A standing in the 2005/2006 not being high enough for European qualification).

All four penalized teams appealed the decision, and their appeals all resulted in reduced punishments. Juve's reduction was by far the smallest. They were relegated to Serie B and had 17 points deducted from the next campaign (-30 before appeal), and two of their last Scudetti stripped. Fiorentina and Lazio played in Serie A after the appeal, each with 19 and 11 points deducted from the campaign. Milan's points penalty for 2005-06 was reduced from 44 to 30, putting Milan in third place and provisionally making them eligible for the third qualifying round of the Champions League (they eventually won it). (UEFA would later confirm Milan's place in the Champions League competition.) Milan's points penalty for 2006-07 was reduced to only 8. Fiorentina and Lazio also had 30 points deducted from their 2005-06 season campaign.

On July 26, 2006, the FIGC awarded Internazionale with the 2005/2006 Scudetto. [1].

See the table below for actual European access and tentative relegation information.

Final classification

Pre-trial Place	Post-trial Place	Team	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	+/-	Pre-trial Pts.	Post-trial Pts	Pre-trial Status	Post-trial Status
3.	1.	Internazionale	38	23	7	8	68	30	+38	76	76	CL Qualifying	Champions
5.	2.	Roma	38	19	12	7	70	42	+28	69	69	UEFA Cup	Champions League
2.	3.	Milan	38	28	4	6	85	31	+54	88	58	Champions League	CL Qualifying
7.	4.	Chievo	38	13	15	10	54	49	+5	54	54	UEFA Cup	CL Qualifying
8.	5.	Palermo	38	13	13	12	50	52	-2	52	52	Intertoto Cup	UEFA Cup
9.	6.	Livorno	38	12	13	13	37	44	-7	49	49		UEFA Cup
10.	7.	Parma	38	12	9	17	46	60	-14	45	45		UEFA Cup^[1]
11.	8.	Empoli	38	13	6	19	47	61	-14	45	45
4.	9.	Fiorentina	38	22	8	8	66	41	+25	74	44	CL Qualifying
12.	10.	Ascoli	38	9	16	13	43	53	-10	43	43
13.	11.	Udinese	38	11	10	17	40	54	-14	43	43
14.	12.	Sampdoria	38	10	11	17	47	51	-4	41	41
15.	13.	Reggina	38	11	8	19	39	65	-26	41	41
16.	14.	Cagliari	38	8	15	15	42	55	-13	39	39
17.	15.	Siena	38	9	12	17	42	60	-18	39	39
6.	16.	Lazio	38	16	14	8	57	47	+10	62	32	UEFA Cup
18.	17.	Messina	38	6	13	19	33	59	-26	31	31	Relegated
19.	18.	Lecce	38	7	8	23	30	57	-27	29	29	Relegated	Relegated
20.	19.	Treviso	38	3	12	23	24	56	-32	21	21	Relegated	Relegated
1.	20.	Juventus	38	27	10	1	71	24	+47	91	0	Champions	Relegated

Rule changes

Scudetto winner and match-fixing scandal

Final classification

Results

Top scorers

Derby statistics

Transfer

See also

External links

Footnotes