As Juventus go kicking and screaming into Serie B, Matt Barker reports on the failure of the new board to realise just how seriously the Moggi match-fixing scandal has damaged the club's reputation

When, in July, the initial sentences in the Moggiopoli scandal were announced, Juventus appeared to take their punishments with reasonably good grace. They would, club officials claimed, co‑operate fully with the legal process and abide by whatever penalties were imposed. There was talk of a club reborn and, in the shadow of sporting director Gianluca Pess­otto’s attempted suicide, of a more humble side to La Vecchia Sig­nora. Some people even started to feel a little sympathy for them.

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Managers may not like it but there are legal limits to what a footballer can do to an opponent. As the police investigate Ben Thatcher's challenge on Pedro Mendes, Neil Rose looks at where the law stands

“Anything that happens on a football pitch should be governed by the FA and FIFA,” said Stuart Pearce following Ben Thatcher’s challenge on Pedro Mendes. “Once you start involving the police, the floodgates can open and you could end up with a situation where players are arrested during a game.”

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Wearside has seen an unlikely football marriage, but Paul Doyle looks behind the headline spats to see how much Roy Keane and Niall Quinn have in common and assess their chances of survival

Niall Quinn often comes across as a Ronan Keating-type figure. There’s something earnest about the two Dubliners that denotes a craving to be perceived as nice guys. And there’s something essentially gormless in their demeanours that frequently suggests they’re both merely well meaning simpletons not to be taken seriously in the real, nasty world. So when Quinn first declared his intention to take over Sunderland, many in his homeland greeted the news with the same mixture of pity and amusement that they felt several years ago when Keating expressed an interest in becoming president of Ireland.

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Tom Davies updates us on clubs in crisis

The inner workings of Peterborough United have been laid bare by Sky’s Big Ron Manager series, in which the discredited ex-pundit was brought in to “advise” then caretaker-manager Steve Bleasdale as the team challenged for last season’s play-offs – their form collapsed. This dirty laundry-airing exercise is the latest in a string of developments that has left supporters exasperated with Barry Fry after nine years of declining playing fortunes and attendances since he arrived, first as manager then as chairman.

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Steve Menary examines the possibility of a Scottish Premier League Two and the ramifications it could have

Does Scotland need a second premier league? The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was formed as a protectionist dash to ring-fence cash and crush rumours that the Old Firm would play elsewhere. Now, clubs in the first division of the Scottish Football League (SFL) want even more protection.

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