ROME -- Juventus, one of the world's most storied franchises, is heading for a financial crisis because of penalties it was handed in Italy's soccer corruption scandal, according to an expert on the finances of the nation's soccer clubs.

Juventus, one of four clubs penalized, was forced to vacate its Serie A championships from the past two seasons, was demoted to Serie B and will be penalized 30 points in the standings next season, virtually insuring the fabled club will spend at least two seasons in the second division.

Stuart Whitwell, a joint managing director of brand valuation consultancy at Intangible Business, thinks Juventus needs major additional investment to avoid a complete collapse. He told the Financial Times the club could lose 6 million over the next two seasons.

"Around 80 percent of Juventus' revenue is from sponsorship and television rights deals, and I would expect the vast majority of that to disappear," Whitwell told Sporting Life. "There is a triple-hit really. Juventus can expect a loss of at least 50 percent of its income overnight. Under the circumstances, sponsors could drop out, and I expect many to do so. There will also be a major loss of players, and thirdly the image of the club is tarnished.

"Unless there is private investment from the Agnelli family (the club owner) or another source, Juventus will go out of business. They could suffer financial meltdown. I think Juventus will need private investments of around 125 million euros (6,703,373) a year for perhaps the next two or three years to keep going. Juventus' ticket revenue is incredibly small for a club of its size and many sponsors will not want to be associated with the club.

"With the loss of income, Juventus will not be able to command a premium. I do think the Juve image will recover over time, because of the history of the club. Juve does have a bit of magic about it and I expect that to help carry it through, but it will take years."

The entire Serie A could suffer. Mediaset, Italy's largest broadcaster, has notified the league it wants a reduction of the fee it pays for broadcasting the highlights of games and has withheld its first payment on this year's contract, it was reported. Italian state broadcaster RAI, which owns the nation's Champions League Rights, and Sky Italia, the satellite broadcaster of Italian league matches, will also be adversely affected by the ruling and could seek redress.

Prosecutors wanted Juventus demoted all the way down to the third division, but judges on the Italian tribunal would not go that far. The tribunal also barred former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi for five years and Italian Soccer Federation ex-president Franco Carraro for four years. "It is a sentence that should be respected and that could have been much worse," said Antonio Di Pietro, Italy's minister of infrastructure and former prosecutor told the Italian news agency ANSA. Separate criminal investigations into sports fraud, illegal betting and false bookkeeping are being conducted in Naples, Rome, Parma and Turin, though it will take at least several months for any indictments to be handed down.

Of the four teams involved, Juventus received the stiffest sanctions after being exposed as having a central involvement in arguably the biggest corruption case in Italian soccer history. Fiorentina and Lazio were also relegated to Serie B and will start next season with 12 and seven-point deficits, respectively. AC Milan was allowed to stay in Serie A, but will start the 2006-07 campaign with a 15-point deficit. Additionally, the club had 44 points deducted from its 2005-06 total, disqualifying it from competing in the upcoming, lucrative European Champions League. The clubs have the opportunity to appeal the decision. Juventus said in a statement that it would appeal what it called an "unbelievable" decision, while AC Milan said the verdict was "an extraordinary injustice." Fiorentina said its relegation was "profoundly unjust" and promised to "fight with all means and in every forum." Lazio president Claudio Lotito said he is willing to take the case as far as the European Court of Justice.

Twelve of the 23 players on the roster of Italy's World Cup championship team come from the four penalized teams. Many of the top players from Juventus have contracts that allow them to seek other clubs as a free transfer in event of a relegation to Serie B. Coach Fabio Capello, who guided Juventus to its last two Serie A titles, resigned last week to become coach of Real Madrid. Defender Fabio Cannavaro, a World Cup star, is rumored to follow him to Madrid, while his Juventus teammate, goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, another Cup luminary, was reported to be headed to English power Arsenal. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger denied the report. "This situation is disturbing the market because you have a flow of players coming out," he told his club's web site. "But don't forget that the players of Juventus are very well paid and not many clubs in the world can afford to pay these kinds of wages. We can not afford to do it. That is why we are not very much disturbed by the Juventus case. It is very unlikely."

The scandal broke when taped conversations of Moggi and Cararro were the prelude to accusations the pair were the architects of a network of federation officials, team owners, referees and journalists who influenced the appointments of referees and thus altered the outcome of league matches. Both Moggi and Giraudo resigned in May, along with the entire Juventus board of directors.

Referee Massimo De Santis, who was pulled from the World Cup, received a four-year suspension, while Serie A referee Paolo Dondarini received a three-season ban, among a number of game officials banned for varied lengths of time. Adriano Galliani, the vice president of AC Milan and former soccer league president, received a one-year suspension, while Diego Della Valle, the president and owner of Fiorentina, received a four-year suspension. His brother, Andrea Della Valle, received a three-year ban, while Lazio president Claudio Lotito was suspended for three-and-one half years.

Lecce, Messina and Treviso, three teams who were to be relegated to Serie B, will be returned to Serie A to fill the three vacancies.