
Brescia relegated to Serie C after points deduction, Sampdoria to contest play-out
May 29 (Reuters) - Italian side Brescia have been relegated to Serie C after they were docked eight points by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) on Thursday for a series of financial violations, meaning Sampdoria will contest a play-out to stay in the division.
Brescia, who finished their Serie B campaign 15th and had avoided the relegation play-out thanks to head-to-head goal difference over 16th Frosinone, were deducted four points in the current season which dropped them to the third tier.
They will serve another four-point deduction in the 2025-26 season.
The club's president Massimo Cellino, formerly in charge of Leeds United, and managing director Edoardo Cellino were handed six-month bans by a FIGC tribunal.
The bottom three teams in Serie B automatically drop to the third tier, while the teams finishing 16th and 17th contest a play-out to stay up.
Brescia's relegation means that Frosinone earned Serie B safety, while Salernitana will face Sampdoria instead in the decider.
The ruling is subject to appeal, a verdict of which is expected on June 12, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The play-out first leg is expected to be played on June 15, local media said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

The National
2 hours ago
- The National
Ex-Rangers striker sparks wild celebrations with cup-winning penalty
The Northern Irish striker smashed home the winning penalty for Johnstone Burgh to beat Tranent in the final at Broadwood Stadium. Lafferty, who has three top-flight Scottish titles, a Scottish Cup and two League Cups as well as a Serie B title and a Championship winners' medal made no mistake from the spot as he lashed home the crucial spot-kick. The 37-year-old climbed off the bench to play a decisive role in the victory after Ciaran Diver equalised, following Tranent taking the lead through a Harry Girdwood header in the first half. Tranent were reduced to ten men with 13 minutes left to play as Scott Gray was shown a second yellow card. Read more: With the scores tied after 90 minutes, the final would go to penalties with Burgh perfect from the spot. Dean Brett fired his penalty over the bar with Luke Scullion saving Tranent's third penalty from Euan Bauld. Diver, Fraser Mullen, Ross Davidson and Lafferty were on target for Burgh to win the cup, and spark wild celebrations as supporters raced onto the Broadwood pitch. Lafferty said on BBC Alba after the cup victory: "You always want to get to finals, no matter what standard you are in. "When I first signed for the club, that was the first thing they said to me: 'We need to win the Scottish Cup, that is the cup we want'. "It's been a long, long time since they've been to the final, never mind winning it."


The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Simon Yates rides away with prize of Giro d'Italia while rivals lose the plot
The Mexican standoff is a much-loved cinematic device, but the stalemate beloved of western movie script writers has rarely, if ever, decided one of cycling's Grand Tours. The 2025 Giro d'Italia was the exception, appositely as the biggest loser was an actual Mexican, Isaac del Toro, with the unassuming Lancastrian Simon Yates the two-wheeled equivalent of the bandit who skips off with the loot, while two other bandits – in this case Richard Carapaz and Del Toro – stare each other down waiting for the other man to blink. Yates's second career Grand Tour win, forged on the Colle delle Finestre on Saturday afternoon in a peerless display of courage and cunning, and sealed 24 hours later in the streets of Rome, will go down in cycling's annals as one of the most improbable heists the sport has witnessed. The endless joy of the Grand Tours – Spain, France, Italy – is that they throw up all kinds of delightful scenarios, but there have been few, if any, where the decisive plot line was a frozen stalemate between the cyclists in first and second places, each waiting for the other to move while a third man skipped away to victory. This was probably the most bizarre act of self-immolation in a Grand Tour since 1989, when Pedro Delgado wrecked his race on day one by getting lost en route to the start of the prologue time trial. To understand how this happened, the first key element is Yates himself. Now 32, his career has been marked by two qualities: patience and sang-froid. His ability to wait for the right moment, and to seize that moment, has been the hallmark of his best wins, going back to his earliest triumphs: his 2011 stage win in the Tour de l'Avenir, his 2013 world title in the points race on the velodrome in Minsk, and his Tour of Britain stage win later that year. When he threw caution to the winds, at the Giro in 2018, it backfired spectacularly at the end of the three weeks, in no less a place than the Colle delle Finestre; when he won the Vuelta a few months later, he had learned the lesson and bided his time. That it has taken so long for him to take a second Grand Tour can be largely summed up in one word: Slovenia. Seven years ago, no one would have predicted the rise and rise of Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic. Yates first looked like a potential winner on the day that Del Toro took the race lead, the gravel‑road stage into Siena, and he had ridden the perfect race since then, never losing enough time to rule him out, never putting his cards on the table. It took more than guts and patience; it needed the other pieces of the tactical jigsaw to slot into place. His team, Visma‑Lease-a-Bike, did what they had to do best: sending a satellite rider ahead in the day's main escape in case of need. Most days, the pawns had had limited impact; here, the strongest and most versatile, the Belgian Wout van Aert, was in the perfect position to help Yates to mess with Del Toro's and Carapaz's minds. Neither the Mexican nor the Ecuadorian had a teammate in place alongside Van Aert, an egregious blunder, because if either man had had an equipier to hand at the key moment – at the foot of the descent off the Finestre with 36km remaining when Yates was still just about within reach – it could well have tipped the balance. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Unwittingly, Carapaz's EF Education team slotted in another piece at the foot of the Finestre, where the EF domestiques ensured that the peloton would hit the climb at warp speed, paving the way for Carapaz to attack Del Toro. In the event, the Ecuadorian was unable to dislodge the Mexican, but their violent acceleration achieved something more insidious: it burned off Del Toro's teammates, who had defended his lead impeccably for 11 stages. By the time they rejoined Del Toro, Yates was long gone. Once Yates had flown the coop at the foot of the Finestre, it was Del Toro's job, as the race leader, to pursue the Lancastrian, whether or not he had any teammates with him. But he knew that to do so would expose him to a late attack from Carapaz, who had started the day only 43sec behind. And Carapaz was equally aware that if he chased, Del Toro might be the beneficiary. It needed either to seize the initiative, or for one team manager to issue an ultimatum to his rider. Without that, the upshot was the absorbing but unedifying spectacle of the pair freewheeling as Yates forged ahead with Van Aert – unedifying that is, unless you were a Visma team member, a British cycling fan or a connoisseur of the bizarre twists that bike racing unfailingly produces.


The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
Neymar SENT OFF for attempting to score Maradona-style Hand of God goal after old club PSG win Champions League
NEYMAR channelled his inner Diego Maradona as he was sent off for a blatant handball. The forward, 33, is currently back at his boyhood club Santos after a nightmare spell with Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal. 4 4 The Brazilian side lost 1-0 to Botafogo yesterday to leave them 18th and in the relegation zone after 11 games of the season. Their issues were compounded when captain Neymar got red carded for doing his best Hand of God impression. With the score goalless after 75 minutes, the Botafogo goalkeeper palmed a cross towards him and it struck his midriff. A defender was going to beat him to the loose ball and clear, only for Neymar to jump forward and punch it into the back of the net from close range. The referee saw it clearly, giving the superstar a second yellow and red card. With Santos down to ten-men, the visitors then scored the winner just ten minutes later. And it could prove to be Neymar's last appearance for the club as his short-term contract expires on June 30. He is suspended for their next game against Fortaleza and the fixture after versus Palmeiras is on July 12. Neymar has failed to roll back the years on his return to Brazil, missing eight matches through injury and scoring just three goals in 12 games. It comes after a disastrous time with Al-Hilal as his £2.5m-a-week contract was ripped up after just seven appearances and one goal in 18 months amid fitness issues. Neymar breaks down in tears and reveals 'each day I am away is a day of suffering' after injury hell And to add insult to injury, Neymar's old club PSG won the Champions League on Saturday night by smashing Inter Milan 5-0.