Italian football club Juventus Turin had an appeal against demotion into the second division over a match-fixing scheme turned down by the nation's Olympic Committee (CONI) on Friday according to dpa. RAI television said that the CONI arbitration panel, the highest appeals body in Italian sport, decided against Juventus after short deliberations. Juventus can now only appeal the demotion at a civil court. Club officials said that its next steps will be decided early next week, but the club said earlier it planned to take every legal action possible over the issue. Juventus were last month stripped of the 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles, relegated to Serie B and had a 30-point penalty imposed by the Italian football federation for trying to influence the choice of referees. An football federation appeals court later reduced the points penalty to 17 points, but upheld the other sanctions. AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina escaped with lighter sanctions and can all continue playing in Serie A.
