Former Juve managers may have sinned, says club chairman

ROME, July 2 (Reuters) Juventus chairman Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, brought in to lead a clean up of the club after a match-fixing scandal, said today earlier management may have committed minor sins but not major ones.

Gigli, who joined Juventus in June after its board quit when the Italy's worst sporting scandal erupted, is the first senior club member to suggest there may have been wrongdoing.

''(My memory says) that the Juventus club is not involved.

Perhaps there are some managers that have committed venal sins, but not mortal ones,'' he said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Champions Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina, as well as 26 senior officials are on trial in Rome's Olympic Stadium for sporting fraud and unfair conduct.

Those accused have denied wrong doing but if found guilty the clubs risk deducted points, relegation and being stripped of their titles.

Juventus, seen most at risk of relegation to Serie B, was already focused on a return to the top flight, Gigli said.

''To return from B to A needs just a year, no?'' he said.

The tribunal expects to deliver its verdict on July 10, a day after the end of the World Cup in Germany.

Gigli said the scandal had overshadowed the Italian team's progress early in the competition but the strong performance of Juve players Gianluca Zambrotta and Gianluigi Buffon as the national side reached the semi-finals had helped to return the club to a better light.

Thousands of Juventus supporters marched through Turin's streets on Saturday as a sign of support for the club, many carrying banners reading ''Juve is with us''.

''If the Juventus fans decide to be close to the club and the club merits it, good ... but sympathy and losers do not interest me. Sympathy and winners do,'' Gigli said.

REUTERS DH RK1658