2006 Italian football scandal Following the Serie A scandal of 2006,
Juventus was relegated to
Serie B and deducted 9 points.
Fiorentina,
Milan and
Lazio, were deducted 15, 8 and 3 points respectively but were not relegated. Consequently,
Lecce,
Messina and
Treviso, originally slated for relegation to Serie B, were to remain in Serie A. However, Fiorentina and Lazio successfully appealed and escaped relegation, thus relegating Lecce and Treviso and keeping 20 teams in Serie A. As part of another inquiry,
Reggina were handed a 15-point penalty but were allowed to remain in Serie A. This penalty was reduced to 11 points on appeal.
League halting of February 2007 On 2 February 2007, police officer
Filippo Raciti was killed outside the
Stadio Angelo Massimino,
Catania, in football-related violence during the
Sicilian derby between rivals
Catania and
Palermo. The match, originally scheduled for 4 February at 15:00, was exceptionally advanced on Friday at 18:00 under request of Catania because of the simultaneity with the
St. Agatha local celebrations. The dramatic Sicilian derby events, which followed the murder of Ermanno Licursi, an amateur club manager, beaten to death during a riot in a
Terza Categoria league match, led Commissioner
Luca Pancalli to call a stop to all football matches in Italy, including Serie A fixtures. Pancalli noted how the league fixtures would not start again until a solution to the violence issue in Italian football is found. The week after, a special law by the government enforced the measures to be taken against violence in football stadia and forbade the presence of supporters inside stadia which didn't agree with mandatory security dispositions, thus enabling Italian football to go on with half of the matches played without audience. Following the events, Catania was prohibited to play its home matches at Stadio Angelo Massimino for the remaining part of the season, and the club was also forced to play its home matches in neutral grounds without spectators (
a porte chiuse, behind closed doors). Several other Italian stadia were closed too because of security reasons, and reopened only once they would have passed several safety requirements. All stadiums were successfully reopened for April, with Stadio Massimino's exception. Catania's home matches were successively allowed to be attended by spectators, yet on neutral ground, as from 13 May.
Dominant Inter With their victory over
Siena on 22 April 2007,
Internazionale captured the 2006–07 Serie A title (the 15th
Scudetto in their club history) by moving 16 points clear of second-place
Roma with five matches to play. Inter's dominant effort marked the defence of the title they were awarded in the wake of the
Calciopoli scandal, and their first
Scudetto claimed on the field since 28 May 1989. Clinching with five matches remaining, Inter tied the Serie A record for earliest title claim (along with
Torino in the
1947–48 Serie A). The team also broke the record for most consecutive wins with a 17 match winning streak.
Relegation battle With Messina and Ascoli already relegated, there was only one relegation slot left to be decided in the last matchday, with
Parma (39 points),
Chievo Verona (39),
Catania (38), Siena (37) and Reggina (37) involved in the battle. The key match in the relegation battle was widely expected to be Catania–Chievo, to be played in
Bologna because of the forced closure of
Stadio Angelo Massimino by the
Italian Football Federation (FIGC) following the February 2007 infamous riots in the Sicilian derby. The match ended in a 2–0 win for Catania; due to the contemporary wins of Parma, Siena and Reggina, Chievo were therefore relegated to Serie B. ==Team details==