Disgraced former Juventus director to try politics

Controversial former Juventus director Luciano Moggi, who was at the heart of a 2006 match-fixing scandal, will stand as a candidate in Italian parliamentary elections in February.

Moggi will stand in Piedmont for the Italian Reformists, a group which is set to ally with the centre-right People of Freedom party of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is seeking a fifth term in government.

Moggi was banned for life from Italian football and sentenced to five years four months in prison following the Calciopoli corruption scandal. He was also convicted of trying to manipulate the transfer market via a management agency in a separate criminal trial.

However he is unlikely to spend time in jail due to Italy's lengthy appeals process and an edict not to imprison offenders for many non-violent crimes.

"For us, Moggi's candidacy is a symbol of the political battle against the media and judicial circus which ruins lives and careers," the Italian Reformists movement said in a statement. (Reporting by Terry Daley; Editing by John Mehaffey)