By Ameenu Shardow
Juventus manager Antonio Conte has been hit with a 10-month ban in a match-fixing investigation.
This means Ghanaians; Kwadwo Asamoah and Richmond Boakye-Yiadom will be without their manager for the start of the Serie-A campaign.
The situation now raises uncertainties over the future of Asamoah and Boakye-Yiadom as Conte was the one who bought them this summer.
This comes as a huge blow for the Old Lady who reclaimed the Scudetto after a nine-year wait attributed partly to the to the hard work of the 43-year-old.
Conte was found guilty by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) for not reporting a match-fixing scheme while maging Siena in the Serie-B.
He has a plea bargain rejected by the FIGC earlier this month, a proposal which would have seen him serve a three-month suspension and pay a fine of €200,000.
His assistant coach at Juve and formerly at Siena, Angelo Alessio, has also been banned for eight months, while Grosseto and Lecce have both been excluded from Serie B for the 2012-13 season for their part in the scandal, with both clubs' former presidents banned for five years.
"[These are] the judgments issued today by the National Disciplinary Committee, chaired by Sergio Artico, in relation to two cases of match-fixing,†a statement from the FIGC read.
“Among the officials, the more severe penalties are those of the president of Grosseto, Camilli, and the former president of Lecce, Semeraro, (for both a five-year ban); the disqualification of 10 months for Antonio Conte, currently coach of Juventus, and for eight months his deputy Angelo Alessio."
Conte's ban comes six years after Juventus were relegated to Serie B, and stripped of two Serie-A titles, for their part in the Calciopoli scandal.