Nice to see the Italians are working so hard to shake their reputation of winning by whining.

The Italian clubs implicated in a match-fixing scandal have had their punishments slashed on appeal.

Lazio and Fiorentina have been reinstated to Serie A – but with points deductions increased from 12 to 19 for Fiorentina and seven to 11 for Lazio.

Juventus’ hopes of overturning demotion to Serie B were dashed, but instead of starting on minus 30 points, they have only had 17 points taken away.

AC Milan stay in Serie A, with their penalty cut from 15 points to eight.

Milan have also been allowed to play in the Champions League qualifying rounds this season – having originally been barred from Europe.

I personally thought relegation was a perfect punishment for these clubs. What they did was inexcusable and deserved a major punishment (The BBC has an excellent overview of the scandal). All this does is slap them on the wrist. Juventus will either remain the whipping boy or they’ll get back into Serie A too. Mark my words.