Italy FA put under emergency administration

ROME, May 16 (Reuters) Italy's Football Federation, shaken by match-fixing allegations, suffered further embarrassment today when it was placed under emergency administration.

The country's national Olympic committee (CONI) put Guido Rossi, a former head of the country's stock market regulator, in charge of the federation with a six-month renewable mandate.

''I wish him good luck, he will need it,'' said CONI president Gianni Petrucci. ''Football, our sport, needs to regain credibility.'' Federation president Franco Carraro and his vice-president Innocenzo Mazzini resigned last week.

Rossi, 75, said he planned to introduce new regulations to help clean up Italian soccer.

''We need rules that will be a deterrent and with serious sanctions,'' he told a news conference.

Magistrates in Naples probing telephone intercepts and looking into suspicions of match-fixing have placed 41 people under investigation.

Italian champions Juventus are at the centre of the affair. Their entire board has resigned and they could be stripped of titles and face relegation to Serie B if their officials are found guilty of attempting to influence the outcome of matches.

Juventus won their second successive Serie A title, the 29th in their history, on Sunday. AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina have also come under the scrutiny of investigators along with referees, federation and club officials.

ROSSI RACE Rossi faces a race against time to conclude the federation's own probe into the affair because the deadline for presenting European soccer's ruling body with the list of clubs for the lucrative Champions League and UEFA Cup is July 27.

''We need to be able to do that,'' said Rossi when asked if the deadline would be met.

Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi, whose intercepted telephone conversations triggered the scandal, was questioned by prosecutors in Rome yesterday.

Investigators spoke to AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti, Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini, former referee Pierluigi Collina and Football League president Adriano Galliani today.

None of this group are under investigation and are being interviewed as 'people who may have knowledge of events'.

''I believe I answered in a prompt and exhaustive manner to the questions the magistrates put to me,'' Galliani told the news agency ANSA.

The investigation has hammered Juventus's shares, which were suspended for the second day in a row today.

The shares have theoretically slumped more than 40 per cent since Wednesday, wiping 110 million euros off the company's value.

Newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore has said that if Juventus were demoted to Serie B the club could lose 120 million euros in sponsorship and television rights.

Juventus said the CEO of the club's main shareholder, the Agnelli family's Ifil holding company, would be given emergency management powers over the club at a meeting on Friday.

REUTERS SY PM0020