NAPLES, Italy (AP) — Former referee Pierluigi Collina testified at an Italian match-fixing trial yesterday that he was not pressured to influence matches.

“I never received pressure to influence the outcome of matches,” Collina said, according to the ANSA news agency.

Italian football federation (FIGC) president Giancarlo Abete also testified, according to ANSA.

The key defendant in the trial is former Juventus executive Luciano Moggi, who is facing charges of criminal association aimed at committing sports fraud.

Another former Juventus executive, Antonio Giraudo, has already received a three-year sentence from the Naples court.

Moggi and Giraudo were banned from football for five years by a sports court for influencing the outcome of matches. They deny any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, FIGC prosecutor Stefano Palazzi is investigating newly released phone taps that allegedly show Inter Milan also attempted to pressure referees.

Inter were awarded the 2006 Serie A title after Juventus were stripped of the honour. The FIGC could now decide to strip Inter of the title.

The scandal was the biggest corruption case in the history of Italian football. Besides Juventus, three other top clubs — AC Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina — were penalised, as were Reggina and Arezzo.

Juventus were stripped of their 2005 and ’06 Serie A titles and relegated to the second division with a nine-point penalty. They immediately won promotion back to Serie A.

At the heart of the scandal were allegations that Moggi and Giraudo created a network of contacts with FIGC officials to influence refereeing assignments and arrange for key players in other teams to be booked ahead of matches with Juventus.