Atalanta have been hit with a new two-point penalty for next season for their role in the ongoing sports-betting, match-fixing scandal known as Calcioscommesse.
Just under a year ago, then newly-promoted Atalanta were hit with a six-point penalty ahead of the new Serie A season, which has just finished.
But in a new disciplinary process relating to the same match-fixing affair, they have now been given another punishment meaning for the second straight Serie A season they will start with less than zero points.
Atalanta were found guilty of fixing the results of certain matches so punters could make money through sports betting.
Their former captain Cristiano Doni was also hit with another punishment as he was banned for two years, although he retired a year ago after being given a three-and-a-half year ban, which technically he is currently serving.
Both punishments, which included a 25,000-euro fine for Atalanta, were reduced by a plea bargain.
Six other teams outside the Italian top flight received point penalties between one and six.
The most severe punishment was handed down to second division Grosseto who were penalised six points and 40,000 euros.
Sixteen current and former players, mostly from the lower divisions, received bans ranging from two months to the two years given to Doni, the most well-known of the bunch.
Although the punishments relate to the same Calcioscommesse affair, the Italian Football Federation disciplinary committee reacts to evidence passed to it by police.
As the police investigations into this scandal are split into different dossiers, so too the disciplinary committee treats each one individually and hence why teams and players are being punished twice for technically the same offence.
Source: AFP
