The sentences will arrive only tomorrow, but the games would already be done, at least to read the "Gazzetta dello Sport". The prestigious pink newspaper anticipated what should be the verdicts of the Disciplinary Commission, for the first degree of the trial relating to "Scommessopoli". Juve wins hands down on Bari, but suffers a bad defeat on Cremona. Leonardo Bonucci and Simone Pepe will in fact be acquitted, while Antonio Conte will be forced to stop for 10 months.
The pentiti, Andrea Masiello on one side and Filippo Carobbio on the other made the difference. The declarations of the former are still "under examination", a kind way of the Disciplinary to define them as unreliable. So Bonucci and Pepe, accused by Masiello of having actively participated in the Udinese-Bari match-up, should come out clean, to the anger of the Federal Prosecutor, who had asked for very heavy penalties for them: 1 year for the midfielder and even 3 years and 6 months for the defender.
But if the repentant Masiello flopped, it shouldn't be the same for Carobbio. Conte's great accuser is considered reliable, indeed very attentive, and therefore the Disciplinary can only act accordingly. The Juventus coach will be disqualified for 10 months, one more than his assistant Angelo Alessio, who should stop at 9. A decision resulting from last week's controversies, which heavily penalizes Conte, who went from an (almost) plea deal at just 3 months to a stop that will cost him an entire season.
Situation that is making the Juventus environment nervous, so much so that the Gazzetta even talks about frost between the coach and the president Agnelli. Conte would not have fully appreciated the strategy of the Juventus lawyers, so much so as to sign two personal ones: De Rensis and Giulia Bongiorno. Michele Briamonte, also present on the Juve board of directors, denies tensions (“But no, we will evaluate everything after the verdict”) but his absence from the Rome trial did not go unnoticed. Conte did not feel 100% protected by the club, which in turn is tired of paying for a story that doesn't see it directly involved. Tomorrow the official sentences will arrive, on Saturday there will be the Super Cup against Napoli, with Bonucci on the pitch (Pepe not, but only due to an injury) and Conte in the stands. What will happen next is not yet known.
