Juve board, including Moggi, resigns

Turin (Italy): The entire Juventus board resigned on Thursday amid allegations of a scandal involving officials at one of European soccer's most famous clubs.

Managing director Antonio Giraudo and general director Luciano Moggi were among those who resigned as Italian media published revelations about wiretapping alleging collusion in the appointment of referees for Juventus games.

The club said it would hold a shareholders assembly on June 29 to replace its board, whose term is expiring.

The club made no mention of any plans to replace Moggi, who is under investigation in Rome and Naples for allegedly trying to influence the choice of referees.

Last week, UEFA and Italian league officials said they had opened inquiries into allegations that Moggi had arranged to have certain referees assigned to his team's games.

UEFA also said it had verbally reprimanded Italian refereeing official Pierluigi Pairetto for disclosing confidential information. According to the transcripts of the phone calls provided by Turin prosecutors, Pairetto disclosed the names of referees to Moggi.

The Italian soccer federation, whose president Franco Carraro resigned earlier this week following initial reports of the scandal, is investigating the case.

Weekly magazine l'Espresso said Wednesday that Pairetto, prosecutors in Naples for criminal association were investigating Carraro and two other refereeing officials.

Giraudo is being investigated for false bookkeeping.

Thursday's resignations came three days before the final day of the season, with Juventus going for its second straight league title and 29th overall. The Turin team needs a draw against Reggina to win the title.

Italian soccer league president Adriano Galliani said there was no immediate evidence of "any stain" for Juventus and Italian soccer.

"If some problem comes to the light, I hope it is solved before the World Cup," said Galliani, who is also AC Milan's vice president.

Juventus, one of the most successful and popular Italian soccer clubs, is owned by the Agnelli family of auto tycoons.