Juventus: Return of the old lady By MARTIN HANNAN Published on Sunday 20 May 2012 01:23 CONSIDER this story: the most famous and most successful club in a country's domestic football history becomes embroiled in a huge cheating scandal which ends with the club being disgraced, some of its officials ejected from football for ever and its main director hauled through the courts, as well as past league titles being taken away from them and the club ordered to be relegated. Now for the sequel: after spending a season in the second tier for the first time in its history, the club slowly fights its way back to the top, despite losing key players. To cap their comeback, they go an entire league season unbeaten and reach the final of their national cup competition - sport's redemptive qualities writ large. The story is true. The club is Juventus. The country is Italy. The scandal was calciopoli, which means "soccerville" but which you could roughly translate as footballgate. To put the scandal in context you have to appreciate the position of Juventus in Italian football. Having won 29 scudetti and nine Italian cups, as well as two European Cups, a Cup-Winners" Cup and three UEFA Cups, Juventus are revered as La Vecchia Signora or the "old lady" of Italian football, despite Juventus being Latin for youth. Owned by the Agnelli family of Fiat fame, Juve have been numero uno for longer periods than any other club in Italy and, while AC Milan and Internazionale have won more European Cups, it is Juventus which is seen as the nation's favourite club - walk into Italian bars and restaurants across the world and you'll meet Juventus-supporting waiters. Their distinctive black and white striped shirts were copied from Notts County in England after their original pink tops were laid aside - and the bianconeri were born. The third oldest club in the country, like Manchester United and the Old Firm, Juve drew support from far beyond their native Turin, largely because of their attacking style of play, their decades of success, and their record of supplying more players to the Italian national side than any club. The names of the players and managers from recent decades say it all. In the 1970s Jose Altafini and then Roberto Bettega, Franco Causio and Marco Tardelli were in their pomp, with mighty defenders such as Gaetano Scirea and Claudio Gentile - the latter a swarthy assassin of a player - plus a certain Dino Zoff in goal. Then came the eras of Michel Platini and Roberto Baggio on the field and Giovanni Trapattoni in the manager's office followed by Marcello Lippi's reign and the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Didier Deschamps and Edgar Davids in the team. It was back in 2006 after two titles won under former player Fabio Capello that calciopoli broke. Months of inquiries and investigations including criminal prosecutions brought six clubs into focus for allegedly attempting to have supposedly friendly referees appointed to their matches. Milan, Reggina, Fiorentina, Lazio and Juve were all fingered and eventually suffered points deductions, along with Serie B side Arezzo. At one time, 48 individuals were named as suspects and seven referees were suspended but, since Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi was touted as the ringleader, it was he and his club that earned the biggest punishments. Juventus were stripped of their 2005 and 2006 league championship wins and were relegated to Serie B. Some of their top names left, but others such as Alessandro Del Piero and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon stayed with the club during its demotion. The court cases still rumble on. Despite being sentenced to five years and four months in prison last November, Moggi didn't actually go to jail - the Italian legal system is quirky, to say the least. The ramifications of calciopoli continue to afflict Italian football. Serie A's claim to be the best league in the world died with the scandal which cost Italian football many millions of euros in lost sponsorship. Those Rangers fans who feel their club has been mistreated by the football authorities in the light of Whytegate could take lessons in showing bad feeling from Juventus followers. For the club took its punishment like a grumpy old woman. Even last week sporting director Giuseppe Marotta was still protesting: "It's our 30th scudetto. We have 30 on all the champagne bottles and we have won 30 titles. The official records may say 28 scudetti but a small industry has grown up to supply Juve fans with flags bearing the number 30, while there is huge debate on whether Juventus players can wear a shirt with three gold stars - denoting 30 league titles - rather than two. Juventus sealed their recovery from the scandal by winning the championship earlier this month after going unbeaten through the season - their first title since calciopoli. Tonight they will play Napoli in the Italian Cup final and they are hot favourites to do the double. It is by any standards a remarkable achievement for the club to come back to the pinnacle so soon after its most desperate crisis and Del Piero and the players who agreed to play in Serie B after Juventus were demoted must take a lot of credit. Winning the league was a personal triumph for 37-year-old Del Piero, who tonight will play his last match for the club he adores. "For me and the others who were there, there is something very special about this moment," said Del Piero. I would like to remember all the boys who played in Serie B, we all came back very happy. So as the future of Rangers is decided, it may be of some comfort to their fans to know that even after a seemingly mortal blow is suffered, a club steeped in a successful history can survive and return to the top.