The session was taken up by procedural objections brought up by defense lawyers. The sports judges rejected most requests to delay the trial or clear suspects on technicalities, but they excluded from the trial a soccer federation official, Cosimo Maria Ferri, charged with match-fixing.

Lead judge Cesare Ruperto said Ferri automatically incurred a lifetime ban from any federation position, without the need for a trial, because he resigned after proceedings against him had begun.

Along with the four teams, the decision left 25 soccer officials -including referees -to face charges of match-fixing and disloyalty at a sports tribunal set up by the Italian soccer federation in a press room in Rome's Olympic stadium.

The trial opened last Thursday but was quickly suspended to give lawyers more time to study documents related to the case. The federation has said verdicts would come before the World Cup final on July 9, but the pace of the trial has been slow so far.

The trial was adjourned until Tuesday, when opening remarks from the soccer federation prosecutor are expected.

The judges could decide to strip titles -including Juventus' league titles in the past two years -and demote the clubs to a lower division.

All the officials involved have denied wrongdoing.

Ex-Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi and former chief executive Antonio Giraudo are accused of creating a system of corruption that ranged from influencing refereeing assignments to getting players booked. The two resigned due to the scandal in May, along with the club's entire board.

Moggi's lawyers tried unsuccessfully to have Moggi dropped from the trial, arguing Monday that since he had quit that he was no longer subject to the federation's justice.

But the judge ruled that since Moggi had resigned before proceedings against him had begun, the former Juventus official would be eligible to seek a position in the soccer world in the future and therefore his alleged responsibilities would have to be ascertained in trial.

Moggi did not attend the hearing Monday, although other key defendants showed up.

The highest-ranking official on trial is former federation president Franco Carraro - who resigned in May after accusations federation officials had conferred with Juventus about assigning certain referees to its matches.

Other officials involved include Milan vice president Adriano Galliani and Fiorentina owner Diego Della Valle - both of whom attended Monday's session.

Soccer federation chief Guido Rossi said he is confident the trials will clean up Italian soccer.

"We'll carry on to the end, without hesitation," Corriere dello Sport quoted him as saying on Monday.

Prosecutors in Naples, Rome, Parma and Turin are also conducting separate criminal probes into sports fraud, illegal betting and false bookkeeping. Indictments could take months.