The four Serie A clubs found guilty of match-fixing will learn later on Tuesday whether their appeals for lighter sentences have proved successful.
Juventus, AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina have all been found guilty by the Italian football federation of committing sporting fraud in the 2004/05 season.
Juventus, who were stripped of their last two league titles (in 2005/06 and 2004/05) and denied entry into the Champions League, have been relegated to the second division with a 30-point deduction for the start of the new season.
Lazio and Fiorentina have also been demoted to Serie B and penalised seven points and 12 points respectively for the new campaign.
AC Milan, who like Juventus have been thrown out of the Champions League, managed to preserve their Serie A status due to the less damning evidence against them, but will start the new season with minus 15 points.
The original punishments were handed out to the disgraced clubs by a Rome tribunal just five days after Italy won the World Cup.
The football federation’s appeal court has been listening to the clubs’ pleas for leniency at Rome’s Parco dei Principi hotel since Saturday.
The appeal verdicts will be announced on the deadline day set by UEFA for the entry lists for their European competitions.
If the appeals of the guilty Italian clubs are unsuccessful, it is likely they will take their cases to the civil courts.
The match-fixing scandal broke in May after transcripts of former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi telling the head of Italy’s referees association which officials to appoint to specific Juve games were published in Italian papers.
Moggi used his power and influence as the key figure at Italy’s most successful club to assert control of Italy’s top referees and high-ranked football federation officials.
The tribunal handed Moggi and Juve’s former chief executive Antonio Giraudo five-year suspensions from all sporting activities.
Adriano Galliani, the AC Milan vice-president, was banned for one year while Andrea Della Valle, the Fiorentina president, was suspended for four years.
Diego Della Valle, the honorary president of Fiorentina, was also given a four-year ban.
Lazio president Claudio Lotito was banned for three years and six months.
Despite the chance of a lesser penalty, Juventus have already started to prepare for life in a lower league with several key players leaving the Turin club, including Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro and French defender Lilian Thuram. – Sapa-AFP