JUVE READY TO MAKE ITALY PAY.

Byline: SCOTT FRENCH SOCCER

Neither Zinedine Zidane nor Marco Materazzi will be there, but Italy and France will meet up again, in a rematch of the dramatic July 9 World Cup final, in eight days. Or not.

The 2008 European Championship qualifier at the Stade de France north of Paris, and a whole lot more, is in jeopardy, and the culprit, no shock, is the ``Calciopoli'' match-fixing scandal that just won't go away.

Turin-based giant Juventus, at the center of the three-month-old scandal, has a simple view of things: ``We wuz robbed.''

To be fair, that's how all penalized in the scandal perceive things -- this is the land of Machiavelli, remember, and the hazy, mazy ways of doing business would make Catherine de Medici blush. Getting away with things is part of the deal.

Juventus, owned primarily by the Agnelli family, which runs Fiat, was stripped of the past two Serie A titles (its 28th and 29th league championships), booted from the lucrative UEFA Champions League (which it won in 1985 and 1996), relegated (for the first time) to Serie B and handed a 17-point deduction (trimmed on appeal from 30games) to start the season, meaning a quick return to Serie A would require a miracle.

Its stock price has plummeted, its budget is a mess, its roster has been decimated with the departures of coach Fabio Capello and stars Fabio Cannavaro, Patrick Vieira, Lilian Thuram, Gianluca Zambrotta, Emerson, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and, soon, Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet. Appeals to Italy's soccer federation and Olympic committee have been denied, and the ``Zebras'' already have been knocked out of the Coppa Italia, falling on penalty kicks in a third-round clash Sunday with Napoli.

It's all so unfair, the ``Old Lady,'' as Juve is fondly known -- appears willing to drag all of Italian soccer down with it.

Juventus has a date Friday with the TAR of Lazio, a Roman civil court, and that's a potential problem for everyone. FIFA's bylaws forbid governmental interference in soccer affairs -- no law is above its own -- and those who transgress have hell to pay.

FIFA has warned the FIGC, Italy's federation, that it and all Italian clubs could be suspended (or worse) if Juventus pursues its appeal. That could force Inter Milan's, AC Milan's and AS Roma's removals from the Champions League and Chievo Verona's, Livorno's, Palermo's and Parma's from the UEFA Cup.

And it likely would cause Italy's withdrawal from the Euro 2008 qualifiers. The Azzurri, coming off their fourth World Cup championship, are slated to open their campaign Saturday against Lithuania in Naples, and the France rematch is four days later.

FIFA says it will act if Juve steps into the courtroom, but the FIGC is cooperating and reports it's ready to impose further sanction, apparently an additional 3-point deduction. None of this gives Juventus pause. The penalties are ``unjustified,'' and the club is receiving a ``lack of fair treatment.''

``The priority,'' a club spokesman noted, ``is the defense of the rights of the shareholders.''

And so, the Italian press reports, if its appeals continue to be denied, Juventus will sue the FIGC for nearly $170 million, the amount it expects to lose if forced to play in Serie B.

Five other clubs -- Fiorentina, Reggina, Lazio, AC Milan and second-tier Arezzo -- and 19 individuals also were sanctioned. All have appealed, and aside from a little tweaking, their appeals have been denied.

Juventus, the only team whose relegation was upheld, says it will drop its civil case if the FIGC reduces its punishment. If that doesn't happen, the Italian League season, already pushed back to a Sept. 9 start, could be postponed, and Italy, its clubs and the players employed by the clubs could find themselves international pariahs.

How realistic is such a scenario? Tough to say. FIFA suspended reigning European champion Greece for nine days this summer, until the Greek parliament passed an amendment that ended governmental interference in soccer affairs, but Italy is a giant in the sport, like England or Germany, and the FIGC is doing what it can.

Meanwhile, France awaits. Thuram and Claude Makelele, so important in Les Bleus' drive to the Berlin final, have decided to extend their careers, and Paris is ready to party.

Galaxy makes presence felt at Hall

It was Galaxy day Monday at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y., where general manager Alexi Lalas and owner Philip Anschutz were among four major U.S. figures inducted. Lalas, of course, was the iconic defender who played in the Barcelona Olympics, starred for the 1994 World Cup team and spent a productive stint in Italy's Serie A.

Former U.S. women's captain Carla Overbeck, and 1972 Olympian Al Trost, one of the greatest players to emerge from soccer hotbed St. Louis, also were honored.

None are as important to the game as Anschutz, the Colorado billionaire who propped up Major League Soccer during its darkest days and led it toward stability and profitability. Anschutz Entertainment Group runs four MLS clubs -- Galaxy, Chicago, D.C.and Houston -- and Home Depot Center.

Baby's a `repair kit'

Given the ferocity of feeling in the stem-cell debate, this is certain to cause controversy: The London-based Sunday Times reported that eight English players are storing stem cells from their newborn babies' umbilical-cord blood to use as a potential ``repair kit'' for soccer injuries. The newspaper didn't identify the five, but quoted a Premier League player: ``As a footballer, if you're prone to injury, it can mean the end of your career, so having your stem cells -- a repair kit, if you like -- on hand makes sense.'' Stem cells can regenerate damaged organs and tissue and could be a potential cure for ligament and cartilage injuries.

`We love our coach'

Vietnamese fans are offering their kidneys for national team coach Alfred Riedl, a 57-year-old Austrian who has battled kidney failure for a dozen years and has been told he needs a transplant.

Riedl is set to guide Vietnam when it stages, as co-host with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, next year's Asian Nations Cup, but he could lose his job if his worsening condition keeps him off the field when the team regroups next month. More than 40 fans have offered to donate a kidney to Riedl, who led Vietnam to second-place finishes at the 1999 and 2003 Southeast Asian Games, but a suitable match has not yet been found.

``The donors are all big fans, and they're doing this for the good of Vietnamese football,'' Riedl, in his third stint as Vietnam coach, told Reuters. ``They want to help me so I can be fit to help Vietnam win something. Their response was quite unexpected.''

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2 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved, foreground, wasn't enough to prod Juventus past Napoli on Sunday in the Coppa Italia.

Salvatore Laporta/Associated Press

(2) Galaxy owner Philip Anschutz, right, dons his Hall of Fame jacket Monday in Oneonta, N.Y.

Anita Briggs/Associated Press

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