Serie A standards leave a lot to be desired

There are five teams still in contention for third spot in Serie A, which gives access to the UEFA Champions League preliminary round. And to millions of dollars.

Well, they have lost a total of 51 matches between them, a sure sign of how much the standard of Italian football has fallen.

Let’s have a look at points and losses: Lazio (54, 10), Udinese (51, nine), Roma (50,12), Napoli (48, eight), Inter Milan (48, 12).

So, a team like Roma, under the disastrous management of Luis Enrique, is still in contention at the business end of a disastrous season. A sad indictment of the poor level of football in Italy.

And talking about disastrous seasons, spare a thought for Napoli. At this stage, it has 14 points less than in 2010-2011!

Scandal update

Another day, another chapter in the scandals in Italian football.

The "deep throat" causing judicial problems for otherwise unsuspectable protagonists is Fabio Gervasoni. His qualities (or lack of them) have not given him much notoriety as a football player, but he is certainly making headlines now, as chief witness for the prosecution.

His latest revelations involve Siena chairman Massimo Mezzaroma. According to Gervasoni he would have paid two Modena players to assure victory for his team in the away match on 26 February 2011.

At the time Siena was in the running for promotion to Serie A, which it duly acquired at the end of the season. You will not be surprised to hear that Mezzaroma denies everything.

Supporters go to court

An interesting development of this buying and selling of matches (42 in total) is the action taken by more than 150 Mantova supporters. The club, which has fallen from Serie A to fourth division, had some excellent players in the past, including national team captain Dino Zoff.

Its supporters have decided to take a class action against people involved in the latest scandal, including half a dozen of present or past Mantova players.

Given the "speed" of Italian justice, their grandchildren may benefit from any damage claim.

Juventus has won already

Unbeaten Juventus is leading Serie A and likely to win this season's title. But it has already won outside the field of play.

The privately-owned Juventus Stadium has proven a resounding success. It has sold out in 18 matches and it is considered a shining example to be followed by other clubs.

Regrettably, like Olympic Committee Chairman Gianni Petrucci said a few days ago, Juventus has its stadium, but from other clubs all you see are beautiful plans, only.

Well done

Congratulations are in order for Alessandro Del Piero and Javier Zanetti who reached two incredible milestones in the last round of Serie A. Juve's Del Piero played his 700th match while Inter's Zanetti reached the 570 mark.

Football scandal to engulf clubs and top names

The scandal besetting Italian football is getting bigger and bigger. It started with second and third division clubs. Now Serie A clubs are being implicated. Some of the names mentioned in a court transcript are bewildering. AC Milan and Roma are among them. At this stage however, it looks more like “false pretences” on the part of some of the people involved. There’s nothing suss about the ever-increasing number of matches involving Bari last season. With the team all but relegated, Bari ultras allegedly threatened some of the players and asked told the team to lose up to six matches so that they could bet and win on the result. The team even lost the local derby against Lecce. If it is proved that Lecce was also involved in the scam, that club is in big trouble.

Balotelli strikes again

I am not referring to his goal-scoring ability. In a week he’d rather forget, Balotelli crashed his Bentley into another car, was alleged to have had a fight with a team-mate, used a giant water hose against a group of young girls and admitted having sex with the prostitute previously involved in a Wayne Rooney scandal. But at least, in this latest episode, he can claim a status-enhancing detail. It was all free of charge. A sign no doubt, of Balotelli’s sex appeal. After all, he is better looking than Rooney. Despite all his troubles, Balotelli does have a high opinion of himself. Lately he was wearing a T-shirt with this message: “Not only am I perfect, I’m Italian, too”. A plus or a minus?

Fair play at Juventus Stadium

Napoli was comprehensively beaten 3-0 in the recent match in Turin against Juventus. Its supporters, including children and people with disabilities, were too. In the circumstances, Italian police were conspicuous by their absence. Now just wait for revenge when the two teams meet again in the final of the Italian Cup late in May. Rome may well burn.

Italian football broke

Actually it IS broke. A report commissioned by FIGC - the Italian football association - confirms a disturbing trend. Total debts amount to 2.6 billion euros, losses for last season were a total of $A428 million. Income from gate takings represents only 10 percent of the total. Stadia occupancy is a mere 56 percent. Only eight clubs have registered a profit at the end of the financial year: Udinese, Lazio, Napoli, Parma, Catania and Palermo as well as Bari and Brescia who were relegated for their trouble. No wonder the Luigi Ferraris Stadium , home to Genoa and Sampdoria, has been closed to the two clubs: the electricity bill has not been paid and supply was disconnected.

Cagliari “home” match

Cagliari will play its next “home” match in Trieste, 884 kilometres away from the Sardinian capital. This is the latest chapter of a long running dispute between the football club and the Cagliari municipality. The Sant’Elia Stadium is about to crumble, but local politicians refuse to authorise the construction of a new stadium.

Local elections decided by ultras

Only a couple of years ago, mercifully, the once mighty Verona side plummeted to the third division. Regrettably, it went up to second division last season and is now in contention for promotion to Serie A, which means a resurgence of its pitiful, racist ultras. Their power is back and they are now influencing the forthcoming municipal elections. There are eight candidates for Mayor, and they are all counting on the ultras votes to be elected.

Australians come and go

- Carl Valeri is set to play in Serie A next season. Either with his current team, Sassuolo, among the leaders in Serie B, or with Bologna, coached by his former mentor Stefano Pioli.

- Vince Grella is leaving Blackburn at the end of this season, assuming he was ever actually there. But he won’t be coming to Australia. He’ll go back to the hills of Tuscany with his young family and look for a club there. Can you blame him?

Racism in Italian football

Yet another episode of ugly racism in Italian football. It all happened in the derby between Roma and Lazio and Brazilian Juan was the victim. He pointed to the Lazio supporters who were abusing him for the colour of his skin then to the referee who did absolutely nothing.

In theory a match could be stopped for racist behaviour by fans, but not in Italy. Lazio was only fined 10,000 euros.

Meanwhile Juan’s little boy was crying in his mother’s arms watching the way his father was treated.

Lazio supporters are not new to this kind of behaviour, not surprising given that some of their supporters belong to ultra-right groups.

Inter supporters’ short memory

Esteban Cambiasso is one of the few great bargains for Inter Milan in the last decade, signed from Real Madrid for nothing. He has spent the last eight seasons at Inter, one the most consistent players in the most non-consistent team in Italian football.

The Argentine has played 238 matches, scored 33 goals, won five Scudetti, four Italian Cups, four Italian Supercups, one Champions League and one Club World Cup.

Well, when he was substituted at the one hour mark in the match against Catania, he was booed off the field by his own 'supporters'. Once on the bench, he was so disappointed that he started crying.

Memory and gratitude are indeed in short supply at Inter.

Italian technology rejected

The International Football Association Board will examine, in July, two types of technology that could, mercifully, be applied during football matches. One is the hawk-eye, already used in tennis, the other is the so-called GoalRef.

Football authorities rejected an Italian system based on cameras placed on the terraces. They must have thought that Italians could have 'fixed' the system the way they are fixing matches.

Talking of which...

Get ready for an earthquake to hit Italian football. The inquiries on match fixing have exposed a network much wider than originally thought.

The forthcoming new chapter in this sad saga is expected to involve not only players but people in authority at some clubs. Bari, Siena, Atalanta, Bologna are only some of the clubs said to be involved.

Italy is famous worlwide for its beautiful beaches but there won’t be much sand left if they try to cover this scandal up.

Mutu over the limit

Former Fiorentina star Adrian Mutu was a notable absentee when his current club, Cesena, travelled to Florence. All sort of excuses were fed to the media, but the truth came out, anyway.

After a match with Romania's national team, Mutu was so drunk he could not board his scheduled flight, and arrived in Cesena one day later than scheduled.

Coach Mario Beretta was not amused and left him at home for the one match that Mutu really wanted to play this season.

Balotelli's expensive night out

Mario Balotelli, as you probably would know already, was seen (and photographed) exiting a strip club in the early hours of the morning, 48 hours before an important EPL match. As a consequence the club fined him around $180,000.

Too expensive, you may think, but that amount is simply his salary for ONE week.

No wonder most clubs are on the verge of bankruptcy or relying on Arab money.

Homophobic Macheda

Federico Macheda, the Manchester United striker now on loan at Queens Park Rangers, must be very bored nowadays. So he went on Twitter, and posted some homophobic comments, which cost him nearly $25,000.

Macheda is a former Lazio player and supporter. Last week he went to Rome and watched the local derby in Curva Nord, the bastion of the extreme right faction of Lazio supporters.

He was in good company.

Former Lazio goalkeeper Tommaso Berti, currently playing for Sporting Braga, flew especially from Spain to be at the match and joined Macheda and Lazio supporters rather than sit in the VIP stand.

Novara’s forward planning

Novara, promoted to Serie A at the end of last season, is all but relegated, now. Yet it went to the trouble of sacking coach Attilio Tesser and replacing him with Emiliano Mondonico six weeks ago.

Now it has sacked Mondonico and re-instated Tesser.

Adding to the drama is the fact that Mondonico had just beaten a severe form of cancer.

He should at the very least have been left in peace at home to continue in his recovery but not according to Novara officials.

And finally...

Somebody has got to do it, so I am on my way to London to watch Chelsea host Napoli in the Champions League.

After Arsenal’s amazing performance against AC Milan, anything is possible.

Especially considering the way the Blues reacted to Andreas Villas-Boas's sacking.

Who will decide qualification: Napoli’s shaky defence or the Italian side's strike force of Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani?

Italy makes history

Italian football has made history, for all the wrong reasons. Gianluigi Buffon and company managed the near-impossible task of losing to the USA in the friendly match played in Genoa.

In the 11 previous matches played between the two countries Italy had won eight and drawn three.

This was also the first defeat of the national team in Genoa since 20 January 1924. What a start to the preparation for Euro 2012.

Juventus and AC Milan kiss and make up

Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli telephoned AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani to try and bury the controversy – and bad blood – that surrounded and followed the match between their two teams. Good luck to them.

For supporters of football (not just the two clubs involved) it would take much more than a simple phone call to forget what happened in the recent match between the two teams, currently at the top of Serie A.

When a team (in this case Milan) scores a goal, the ball is in by nearly one metre, and the referee and his assistant don’t see it, the credibility of the game is at stake, not just the result.

Technology has become a MUST, given that it takes only a few seconds to double-check a crucial incident.

Finally, season salaries for the 22 players who took the field at the San Siro amounts to an astonishing $350 million. Surely some of that money can be used to pay for technology.

Unless it is true what I suspect. Technology would diminish the power of referees to influence results, not always in good faith, and that’s the true and only reason as to why there is such enormous resistance to introduce it.

Pato on the way out?

AC Milan Brazilian striker Alexandre Pato has been hitting the headlines this season for more than one reason. On the bright side (?) is the fact that he is dating club owner Silvio Berlusconi’s daughter. Less pleasant is the fact that he is constantly injured.

Since January 2010 Pato has been injured13 times, at an average of six times per season, missing a total of 50 matches. In the current season Pato has missed 18 games out of a total of 36.

Off-loading him to PSG looks like an ever more appealing proposition.

Inter Milan’s forgettable February

Anybody connected, one way or another, with Inter Milan will be relieved that the month of February is finally in the past. Claudio Ranieri’s players (some of them look like former players, anyway) have not scored a goal since 2 February. That is in five matches.

Given those attacking skills, or lack of them, it comes as no surprise that Inter, in the month of February has a record, for want of a better word, of five losses and one draw. That's relegation form.

Golden Guidolin

Francesco Guidolin, the Udinese coach, has won the “Golden Bench”, the award that goes every year to the best coach in Serie A, succeeding Jose Mourinho. He was chosen by his fellow coaches in Serie A.

Ironically, the Serie B award went to Attilio Tesser, promoted last season with Novara but sacked a few weeks ago by the same club that is now struggling at the bottom of the Serie A standings.

Third division woes

If you think Italian football’s problems are confined to the top echelon of the sport, well you are mistaken.

Michele Ginestra, goalkeeper for third division Foggia, could testify to that.

In a recent interview he stated the obvious, suggesting the team could do with some help from its supporters. The reaction was swift. A group of 40 “supporters” assaulted him a few days later and he had to be rushed to hospital.

Amazingly, police were unable to identify his aggressors despite the fact that there were many witnesses to the disgraceful event.

Ginestra is now at his home in central Italy and is refusing to go back to Foggia.

Unlucky 13

Coach number 13 has been sacked this season in Serie A. It tells you how great planning is at most clubs. This time, however, it was justified.

I can finally tell that, for a change, I got it right.

When lowly Cesena appointed Daniele Arrigoni to replace Marco Giampaolo I wrote that one of the relegation spots had already been allocated. I meant that Arrigoni was the wrong man at the wrong time and with the wrong background to save Cesena, which is now last in the standings.

He is being replaced by Mario Beretta, formerly at Siena, who has got a near impossible task.

It would be interesting, in any case, being told why on earth Arrigoni was chosen in the first place.

And unlucky 14 to come

It seems only a matter of hours before we add another name to the list of coaches that did not make it until the end of the season.

Lazio’s Edy Reja, the most over-rated coach in the history of football, tendered his resignation a few days ago. That came after Lazio’s disastrous 5-1 loss in Palermo, and a mighty row with club chairman Claudio Lotito, who threatened Reja with legal action if he refused to go to Madrid with the team for the return leg of the Europa League tie against Athletico.

Given Lazio lost 1-0 in Spain, don’t be surprised if youth team coach Alberto Bollini sits on the bench on Sunday in the home match against Fiorentina.

UCL and Italian teams

The last 16 matches in the UEFA Champions League started well for Italy with AC Milan destroying Arsenal 4-0.

Things got only slightly worse with Napoli defeating Chelsea 3-1 at the San Paolo. Great match, but Chelsea only needs a 2-0 win to go through. Not an impossible task.

And then, Inter Milan. When it does not go, it does not go, and Claudio Ranieri’s men achieved the impossible. Losing 1-0 to Marseille, conceding a goal in the last seconds of added time.

A friendly reminder for AC Milan supporters, the game against Deportivo La Coruna played on 6 April, 2004. The Rossoneri had won comfortably the first leg 4-1, but they were eliminated, losing 4-0 in Spain. Survivors of that team are Christian Abbiati (who was on the bench), Alessandro Nesta, Pippo Inzaghi and Rino Gattuso.

AC Milan or Juventus?

The answer will be provided on Sunday morning, Australian time. The two best teams of the season at the San Siro in the match that will probably decide who will win the Scudetto this season.

Last October in Turin, Juventus won comfortably 2-0. It’s likely to be a different story, and a different AC Milan, this time.

Milan has the best forward line in Serie A (48 goals scored) and Juventus the best defence (14 goals conceded). Andrea Pirlo, having played for 1- seasons and 284 matches for AC Milan, will be the player to watch.

In the recent game against Catania, he touched the ball 147 times, probably a world record.

Somebody who won’t touch the ball, at least in this match, is Zlatan Ibrahimovic. His three-match suspension was upheld by an appeal tribunal, and he will miss the Juventus encounter.

Wealth and pettiness

They go together more often than not. Like in Bologna, for instance.

Players of the local team, on multi-million euro salaries, bought counterfeit car passes for the centre of the city similar to those meant for disabled people. No doubt, looking at their early performances this season, many of them did look as if they had severe impediments.

Police disagreed, and when the players were caught they were issued with hefty fines. The record belonging to top goal-scorer Marco Di Vaio, more than 10,000 euros.

Save the children

God (or whichever super-human authority you have chosen to follow) save the children. Follow this story for a great contrast with the Bologna players.

At a recent Inter Milan home match a boy by the name of Filippo held up a sign carrying this message: “Could you win, please? Otherwise they make fun of me at school! Thank you. Filippo.”

He became an instant celebrity on the internet, the club spared no effort to identify him and he was a guest of the club a few days later, meeting most of the first team squad.

Capello in two places at once

Fabio Capello has plenty of admirers. However, even his most ardent supporters would have to agree that he is unable to be in two places at the same time. This is what should have happened if you believe Italian newspapers.

They were writing that Capello was in the Russia to finalise a contract with Anzhi Makhachkala. In fact he was skiing in St. Moritz.

Capello was so incensed that he issued a media release to inform everybody that he was in Switzerland skiing and not in Russia signing a new contract. The release was signed by his son, who happens to be also Capello’s lawyer.

Coaching’s musical chairs

The silly season has begun in so far as coaches are concerned. According to the latest rumours Vincenzo Montella is going to move from Catania to Napoli.

Inter Milan, wait for it, is going to sign Pep Guardiola and Roberto Baggio for its technical department. So says Gianluca Vialli, and the rumour has been strengthened by what must be considered clear-cut evidence.

Guardiola was wearing a black and blue (Inter colours!) scarf at a recent Barcelona match.

However, it could be worse. Diego Armando Maradona said he would love to coach Napoli, if the Italian Taxation Office dropped a request for $40 million in unpaid taxes and penalties.

A promise or a threat?

AC Milan overcomes English inferiority complex

AC Milan was eliminated from European competition the past three times it met English opposition. In particular, Arsenal eliminated the Rossoneri in 2010.

But revenge has finally come. In the form of a 4-0 win at the San Siro over the Gunners.

One minute before the match started, if you believed pundits expressing their opinions, Milan was too old, unable to challenge Juventus for the title, doubtful in the Champions League, and in need of a major overhaul before the beginning of next season.

Ninety minutes later opinions on Massimiliano Allegri’s men were somewhat different: a great team, wonderful defence, unstoppable strikers and so on.

I wonder whether there would be less chaos in football if the media gave a more balanced view of events.

Napoli arrests

Eleven ultras have been arrested in Naples in relation to disturbances that occurred over one year ago, including assaulting Liverpool supporters. The arrests came one day after Napoli Chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis was interviewed at a Neapolitan Court for about four hours.

Despite secrecy surrounding the inquiry, it looks as if De Laurentiis was questioned about scalpers making a killing at each Napoli home match.

It appears as though scalpers have easy access to tickets whilst genuine supporters have extreme difficulty. About 40,000 of them waited for hours in order to secure tickets for next week's UCL match against Chelsea.

The returning players

Napoli’s forays in the transfer markets won’t win any Scudetto... if there was one for buying and selling players.

No sooner does Napoli sign a player, he is then dispatched to the country where he came from.

It happened with Victor Ruiz, now happily back in Spain.

It reached new heights, or lows, with Christian Chavez and Ignacio Fideleff. Not only did the two go back to their country, Argentina, but to the same clubs they were purchased from.

Chavez is back at San Lorenzo and Fideleff at Internacional. It doesn't make much sense.

Gratitute in football

AC Milan is, in theory, a perfectly organised club and results over the years back up this assumption. But it is not so good in the “gratitude” department.

Just look at the case of Paolo Maldini. He played at Milan for twenty years, winning every possible trophy, domestic and international. Yet, three years on from his retirement, he has never been offered a job by the club, in any capacity.

So, he has reportedly decided to migrate and join Leonardo and Carlo Ancelotti at PSG.

Although it may not happen, Paris is not bad as a migrant’s destination.

Capello wins again

Don’t be fooled. Fabio Capello’s “resignation” from his job as England national team supremo just four months before Euro 2012 is another win for the Italian. If England does poorly in Poland-Ukraine it will be because of his absence. If the Three Lions do well, it will be because of what Capello built since being appointed.

Having said that, I find it perfectly correct that the English FA be free to appoint or sack the captain of the national team. All this power that coaches are supposed to have over everything and everybody defies any logic.

Now, be ready for Capello to replace Claudio Ranieri at Inter Milan. He has had spells in Milan twice before, as a player and then as a coach for AC Milan, and liked what he saw.

Oh and be careful if you visit England. The country where you are guilty until you are proven innocent. As John Terry can testify.

Corruption in Italian football worse than expected

The number of matches affected by the football scandal in Italy continues to grow. There had been some attempts to keep Serie A away from this disgrace but, they have failed.

The team from Bari, relegated from the top competition at the end of last season was apparently nothing short of a hotbed of crooks. Most players were involved, bringing midfielder Sergio Almiron to call his team-mates a bunch of money-hungry crooks.

Bari was involved in fixing the result of the match against Brescia (0-2 on 6 February 2011) plus a few others. Also under investigation are Napoli v Sampdoria (4-0 on 30 January 2011), Brescia v Lecce (2-2 on 27 February 2011) and 12 matches from Serie B.

Meanwhile, there have been two more arrests as the number of people implicated continues to rise.

One is Angelo Iacovelli, released under house arrest after four days in prison, a male nurse very close to Bari players.

The other, Piacenza goalkeeper Mario Cassano, who was considered a huge prospect when he made his debut in Serie A at just 16 years of age, 11 years ago.

Iacovelli has also accused former Italy international striker Marco Di Vaio and Daniele Portanova of involvement in match fixing.

Arabs raid Italian football, too

Italy here we come, is the catch cry of Arab investors, willing (and able) to put their money where the round-ball is.

Ahmub Zubeidi, representing the Ama Group, attended a media conference with Palermo chairman Maurizio Zamparini.

He said on that occasion that his group intended to bring to Italy billions (yes, billions, not millions) and bring the Scudetto to Palermo within three years. He’s got to be joking.

Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentis is also talking to Arab investors despite the fact that the club has made it into the list of the top 20 richest clubs. Not in terms of results but on the basis of the revenue it generates.

Real Madrid is still tops, for the seventh year running.

Coppa Italia worth a spot in UEL

The semi-final of the Coppa Italia between Siena and Napoli is much more than it may look at first sight.

Given that one of the finalists is going to be Juventus or AC Milan, and given that those sides are almost certainties to finish first and second in Serie A (therefore qualifying for UCL), the other finalist will be handed a spot in the Europa League.

For Siena it would be a dream come true. For Napoli a minor consolation following a very disappointing Serie A campaign.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic managed to strike again, this time in the Coppa Italia match against Juventus. After hitting Salvatore Aronica in the Serie A match against Napoli – and copping a three-match suspension for his trouble – he did it again. This time the victim was Juventus’s goalkeeper Marco Storari. More suspensions to come for the uber-aggressive Swedish striker?

Apia Leichhardt scares the old Lady

Apia Leichhardt did itself proud at the youth tournament Coppa Carnevale in Viareggio, Italy.

The young team from Australia gave Juventus a hell of a fright at the prestigious competition. It went close to scoring before it succumbed to an Alberto Libertazzi goal in a 1-0 defeat.

Football and racism

Lazio supporters will never run the risk of winning any kind of “fair play award”. They are among the most unruly, they are branded as “fascists”, rightly or wrongly, and they are renowned in Italy for being racist. The latest instalment of their racist behaviour is linked to Djbril Cisse’s departure for London and Queens Park Rangers. The player has been described on twitter as “negro bastard” and “big monkey”. His reply? Scoring a goal in his debut for QPR, something he had found difficult to achieve in a Lazio shirt.

Football and gratitude

Gratitude is in short supply in football. The latest episode sees our protagonist Attilio Tesser, recently sacked as coach of newly-promoted Novara. He had taken the side to Serie A after a 55-year absence. The club gave him a squad clearly ill-equipped to survive at the top level, but now it's paid him the ultimate price by getting rid of him. Enter Emiliano Mondonico. This time last year he was fighting for his life against cancer. OnThursday he led Novara to another defeat, at home , 1-2 against Chievo.

How “Italian” is Italian football?

Another newly-promoted side, Siena, is doing better than Novara. Not only is it out of the relegation zone, but it's performing well counting mostly on Italian players: 11 out of 11 in the last couple of games. Foreign players have been used mainly as substitutes. The last time a situation such as this has occurred was on September 26, 2010, nearly 500 days ago. Sampdoria played 11 Italians against Udinese in a match that ended 0-0. Quite a contrast with the Inter Milan team that took the field in the final of the UEFA Champions League against Bayern Munich in 2010 without a single Italian player. Marco Materazzi was used as substitute towards the end of the game.

Fiorentina on strike

We have heard about players going on strike or even referees refusing to perform their duties. Now Fiorentina has provided us with a novel way of protesting. The club’s Board of directors has gone on strike on the occasion of the derby against Siena, leaving empty the first row of the main stand, normally reserved for club officials and local authorities. Owners and directors are sick and tired of the constant abuse they suffer at the hands (and tonsils) of Fiorentina supporters.

Roma: how to win families and lose matches

AS Roma Chairman, Thomas Di Benedetto, has launched a new initiative to entice family to go and watch the team’s home matches at the Olympic Stadium. He has officially opened the “Cuore Sole Village”, the Village of Heart and Sun. The area is dedicated to entertaining supporters, parents and children. “The first objective of the club is winning”, he said in his official speech at the opening. After which Roma lost 2-4 to Cagliari at the end of an awful performance.

Cold snap, early start

It has taken a cold snap of unprecedented proportions for Italian football authorities to finally acknowledge that night football and winter weather don’t mix. Next Saturday and Sunday all matches will kick off at 3pm. Whether television networks like it or not. This is a revolutionary move in a football country where televisions, basically, pay for 99 percent of football costs, and demand in exchange substantial powers in deciding kick off times for all matches.

AC Milan and Napoli struggling

AC Milan’s loss to Lazio in Rome (0-2) did not come as a surprise to those who like following statistics of the round ball game. The rossoneri never do well against their main rivals for the title. In the two matches against Lazio, Milan has conceded four points to (2-2 in Milan and 0-2 in Rome). They have also been defeated by Juventus (0-2), Inter (0-1) and Napoli (1-3). And talking about Napoli, the team seems to struggle against strugglers. In the last four matches Napoli has drawn with Bologna, Siena and Cesena and lost to Chievo.

James Troisi for Cagliari

James Troisi may be the next Australian footballer to play in Italy. Currently in Turkey with Kayserispor, Troisi may be signed by Cagliari in Serie A. It would be a great reward for Troisi, who was a bit unlucky to be released by EPL outfit Newcastle United four years ago.

Coppa Italia Top Four

The Coppa Italia is generally snubbed by Italian clubs. At least until the semi-finals. Now that we have reached that stage, the big boys are out to clinch the title: Juventus, AC Milan and Napoli have qualified, as has Siena. The most interesting semi-final, no doubt is the one between Juventus and Milan, rivals for the Scudetto.

Financial fair-play to assign next Champions League

The 2013 Champions League will not be won and lost on the field of play. The key role will be played by accountants. The main issue is that clubs will not be able to take part if their losses are more than 45 million euros (over $A50 million). Italian clubs are well represented in a list of the 13 clubs which, today, would be unable to take part. UEFA, for reasons best known to itself, has informed us that there are 13 big clubs in trouble, but have not mentioned which ones. However, it looks as if Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus are among the group. They are in good company, joined by the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, PSG, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Bayern Munich and Napoli are the only major clubs with their books in order.

Injury plague in Serie A

The number of injuries to Serie A players is staggering. Top of the list is Lazio with 43 absentees due to injury so far this season. Napoli is the best-performed on the medical front with 11 players missing games because of injuries. In the Champions League Porto (four players) and Viktoria Plzen (three players) are the only clubs to have done better than Napoli. The Neapolitan side had to do with a total of six players absent because of injuries. A stark contrast with the 40 players absent for Arsenal.

Referees a disaster area

Referee Domenico Celi has written the latest chapter in the never-ending disaster story of referees' performances in Italian football this season. In the Coppa Italia match between Napoli and Inter he managed to ignore a violent foul by Wesley Sneijeder on Walter Gargano that deserved a red card, ignore a foul by Christian Kivu on Edinson Cavani, ignore an even bigger foul by Cristian Maggio on Diego Milito deserving a penalty kick.

In this last instance, he added insult to injury by cautioning Milito for simulation. The same Celi only three days earlier in Bergamo had an equally disastrous performance. He ignored in his match report the flares thrown by Juventus supporters at their Atalanta counterparts, resulting in five people being injured and sheer terror among women and children. However he did get Atalanta fined more than forty-thousand dollars because he was hit by a coin.

The “real” Serie A table

The Serie A standings would look quite different if referees’ wrong decisions were taken into account. AC Milan would lead on 41 points instead of 40, followed by Juventus 39 (41), Udinese 36 (38), Inter 33 (35) and Napoli 31 (29).

Mazzarri suspended

UEFA suspended Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri for two matches after his sending-off during the match in Villareal. As a result of this suspension, Mazzarri will miss the two games against Chelsea. If I were naughty, which of course I am not, I would say that Napoli’s qualification chances for the quarter finals have substantially increased. By the way, for reasons that defeat logic, Mazzarri is the highest paid coach in Italy. He has to make ends meet on a meagre salary of 2.5 million euros a year (over $A3 million).

Bobo Vieri to eclipse Fred Astair?

Bobo Vieri, as we told you a few weeks ago, is taking part in the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars. At $A50.000 per episode. Vieri is no Fred Astair yet, but he is working on it. He has been very successful on another front, losing 18 kilos since joining the show. Other footballers taking part are Marco Delvecchio and the great Gianni Rivera.

Serie A players not good enough...apparantly

There is not one Italian in UEFA's top 10 players for 2010/2011. The only Serie A footballer chosen by the European body is Thiago Silva, a Brazilian. Is Serie A that bad?

Aurelio De Laurentis and UCL

Manchester City, eliminated by Napoli in the UCL, is probably wishing the Neapolitan club's chairman Aurelio De Laurentis had spoken up earlier. He now says that beating Chelsea in the last 16 is not as important as finishing third in Serie A, the last spot for qualification for the Champions League. Fact is, Napoli has a greater chance of winning the UCL than finishing third. It sits seven points behind third-placed Udinese.

The signifiance of number 10...and 20

It’s the number usually associated with top players, but now there is also a less glamorous link. Ten is the number of coaches Parma has had since Tommaso Ghirardi took over as Chairman on January 25, 2007. Not to be outdone, Palermo Chairman Maurizio Zamparini has reached another milestone, with Emiliano Viviano is the 20th goalkeeper his club has had in the last ten years.

Taxing time for Maradona

I'm betting Diego Maradona would rather forget the beginning of 2012. Not only did he end up in hospital with kidney problems. A court in Naples has re-opened a trial in which Maradona is accused of tax evasion. For the not-so-paltry amount of $45 million.

Last week I wrote about Mario Raso, who prestended to shoot his team-mates with a toy gun after a scoring a goal for his fifth-division club Arezzo. This week the colourful division delivered again, when Potenza's Antonello Schiavone was not happy with the mark of 4.5 a local news correspondent had give to one of his performances. Our man waited for the reporter at the next training session and beat him up, sending the journalist to hospital. He has been suspended by his club.

Derby wars

It’s derby time in Milan and the two local teams are in no doubt as to how important the forthcoming “derby della Madonnina” is. Inter Milan is on 29 points, eight behind its arch-rival. A loss would spell the end of any championship aspiration, a win would keep hopes high for Javier Zanetti and company.

Inter won the derby's lead-up derby, with Milan sensibly pulling out of the race to sign Carlos Tevez and saving itself at least two years of drama.

Another one bites the dust

The team is seven points ahead of the last relegation place, but Parma coach Franco Colomba was sacked all the same. He made the mistake of telling Chairman Tommaso Ghirardi that he felt the team was not following him, after it lost 0-5 to Inter Milan. He was promptly disposed of, the eleventh coach sacked in Serie A this season. He probably won’t be the last: Attilio Tesser (Novara) and Serse Cosmi (Lecce) may well follow him. Roberto Donadoni, former coach of Italy’s national team, has replaced Colomba. For the time being.

Maradona outclassed

Diego Armando Maradona, the greatest footballer of all time - I do come from Naples, after all - does not understand Leonardo, the PSG general manager. Since he is about to come to Australia, we may have a chance to help him. Diego is wondering what Leonardo is: “player, coach, player agent, oil magnate? I don’t understand” he told Canal Plus. Leonardo, showing a touch of class for which Maradona will never be known, provided an answer: “I don’t know myself!”

Roma’s revolving doors

Remember Tommaso De Benedetto? We were told he is the new Roma Chairman, representing a group of American millionaires who had bought the club. Well, this is no longer the case. A gentleman by the name of James Pallotta has taken over (don’t hold your breath). At the beginning of this week he went to the Roma headquarters in Trigoria and met staff and players. “Roma must fear nobody and nothing” he said, and to stress the point, he threw himself into the icy water of Trigoria’s swimming pool. Maybe in the States it could pass for “motivational speech”. In Rome they rushed for the psychiatrist.

Simone Farina developing halo?

You know the story about Simone Farina. Former Roma Junior, now playing for Second Division Gubbio, Farina has done what anybody would be expected to do when offered money to “fix” a match. He went to his Chairman and denounced everything to the football federation. That sparked the media circus into action and Farina was hailed as a hero. On Monday he was an invitee at FIFA’s glittering ceremony which celebrated Lionel Messi (for the third time in a row) as best player in the world. He has also been invited to the next Italian national team camp. All great. But there was such luck for a guy by the name of Pisacane, playing in Third Division for Ternana, who refused to accept $50,000 to fix a match last season. He has been ignored by the federation and by public opinion. Next season, you can bet, he will have problems finding a club.

Ebolitana versus Sydney FC

What an interesting comparison between Sydney FC and Ebolitana, a team playing in Italy’s fifth division. I’m not referring to the standard of football, where Ebolitana would probably come up on top, but to the behaviour of their respective supporters. The long-suffering Sydney fans keep following their team, stumbling from one loss to the next, without any major complaints. In Eboli, a little town south of Naples, they have a somewhat different philosophy when it comes to player-supporter relationship. Following a 1-6 home defeat last weekend, local players were assaulted, beaten up and sent to hospital. Of another kind of madness was protagonist Antonello Scavone, striker for a fifth division team near Potenza. The reporter for a local paper, Rocco De Rosa, gave him a mark of 4.5 (out of ten). Scavone disagreed. And sent the reporter to hospital with a hook to his face.

More fifth division madness

Finally, how about this for a new form of celebrations. Mario Raso took a penalty for Arezzo (Tuscany fifth division) and scored. After which he rushed to the bench, picked up a toy-gun, and pretended to shoot at his team-mates who, alerted to the planned celebrations, fell to the ground. Instead of testing some players for drugs, let’s check their IQ levels.

Serie A is back

Serie A returns on 7 January with the game of the round the 'derby of the south' between Palermo and Napoli. You may notice some teams will look substantially different to what they did before Christmas. Fiorentina will be without its former striker Alberto Gilardino, who has joined Genoa. He will be replaced by Maxi Lopez or Amauri, according to the latest rumours.

No sooner had Roma signed the paper for Marco Borriello’s transfer to Juventus, Osvaldo got seriously injured. He will be out for a couple of months. Roma is trying to get rid of a few players which do not figure in Luis Enrique’s plans. Simone Perrotta is one of them , Cicinho another. For mysterious reasons Marco Cassetti is also set for an exit. The defender is good enough to be selected for the Italian national team but not good enough for Roma's Spanish coach. Oh the Mysteries of football’s transfer market.

Eduardo who?

Chilean star Eduardo Vargas is on his way to Naples. But the question is, to strengthen the team or to pave the way for Ezequiel Lavezzi’s departure? The welcome the former Universidad star got from Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri is not exactly encouraging: “I don’t know him” was Mazzarri's comment when informed of the impending arrival. Investing $12 million into a player the coach doesn't know? Only in Italian football.

If you're reading this, Walter, meet your new striker:

Cellino versus Cagliari airport owners

You would not expect Massimo Cellino, the Cagliari owner, to enjoy and relax during the festive season, would you? Well, he has not disappointed us. During the break in Serie A got busy arguing with the company in charge of Cagliari’s main airport, Sogaer. Cellino wants to build a new stadium in an area owned by the airport. He’s in advanced negotiations with the Cagliari municipality but, Cellino being Cellino, he could not wait. He fenced an area that, until 31 January, is rented by Sogaer and used as a carpark for airport users. Cellino has now been sued for damages by the company lawyers.

Migrant coaches

The best Italian coaches seek fame and fortune (and money) abroad. It’s a case (nearly) of mass migration. So much so that Italy's best coaches are now abroad: Fabio Capello (England), Roberto Mancini (Manchester City), Carlo Ancelotti (PSG), Luciano Spalletti (Zenit St Petersburg). The only one without a bench on which to rest his precious backside is Marcello Lippi, who is looking for a foreign national team. That is his official line. He would not admit that in Italy nobody wants him, would he?

Technology a must

The head of Italian referees, a gentleman by the name of Marcello Nicchi, has informed us that he is against the six referees system in place in the UEFA Champions League and Europa League and against technology. The latter, according to Nicchi, would end up giving us endless matches. What a load of rubbish. Nobody advocates technology for throw-ins and other minor problems. Double-checking if a penalty should be awarded or if a ball is in or out when the awarding of a goal is at stake would only take a few seconds. The truth is, technology would take away some of the huge power currently in the hands of referees (and their bosses). Power that can be used in various ways. Not often for the good of football.

Merry Christmas ( I know, I’m late) and Happy New Year to Juventus

After a few years in the doldrums the Bianconeri are finally where they belong again, at the top of Serie A.

This time Juve didn’t even need help from its friends, usually wearing black and with a whistle in their mouth.

The last time Juventus led was in the 2005-2006 season with Fabio Capello on the bench.

So far this season it is unbeaten, having won nine matches and drawn seven. The last time it was unbeaten after sixteen rounds was in 1949-1950 when Giampiero Boniperti was the midfield maestro.

Another positive aspect this season? More often than not, eight players of Juve's starting XI are Italian.

Scandal galore

Scandals in Italian football continue to fill the front pages of Italian newspapers, sport-based or otherwise. Let’s try an update.

Cristiano Doni, the Atalanta captain, has been jailed and then moved to house arrest. He has finally admitted the obvious: his involvement in fixing a few matches some of which, most importantly, involved his own team.

Incidentally, this is the team where Christian Vieri started making his name in top football. It’s not going to be easy for Atalanta to escape relegation. The club's former chairman Ivan Ruggeri has been in a coma since January 2008, a human tragedy that has at least spared him the shame of the current situation.

Gervasoni and Santoni squeal

Another player who has admitted the fixing of matches is Carlo Gervasoni. According to the former Bari and Piacenza defender, these Serie A matches were fixed in the past: Palermo 2-1 Bari, Lazio 4-2 Genoa and Lecce 2-4 Lazio.

Gervasoni, it has emerged, fixed matches in all the teams he played for in the last few years. Nobody would be able to criticise him for lack of consistency.

Another former player who is providing magistrates with a lot of useful information is Nicola Santoni.

After brief appearances in Serie A with Palermo, Santoni was coaching the goalkeepers of third division Ravenna. In between training sessions he too was involved in betting on “fixed” matches.

Most importantly he claimed players such as Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro and Rino Gattuso are “sick” when it comes to betting. He added that Buffon, the national team goalkeeper, bets more than $200,000 a month.

But Italy’s administration of justice is peculiar, to use an understatement. So, lesser players are crucified every day but for the three internationals even the chief prosecutor sprung to their defence, assuring all and sundry they are not being investigated.

Transfer market hotter than ever

There will be no matches played in Serie A until early January. However, while players rest general managers and player agents are very busy.

Alberto Gilardino will leave Fiorentina for Genoa. He will be replaced in Florence by Catania’s Maxi Lopez.

Juventus is trying to get rid of a few players not needed since Antonio Conte tends to always use the same players.

Amauri is one of those on his way out after being frozen out of the Bianconeri first team. But don't feel too sorry for him, for NOT playing he is being paid more than $300,000 a month.

There is movement on the coaching front as well. After pledging eternal love to the English Premier League, Carlo Ancelotti may resign himself to move to France. He will take charge at PSG for a reported $8million a year for the next three seasons.

He may be joined there by Alexandro Pato after an interview in which the Brazilian is scathing in his appraisal of his coach Massimiliano Allegri. A major obstacle is the fact the Pato’s fiancée is the daughter of chairman Silvio Berlusconi.

There is another disincentive. In less than two years Pato has suffered no less than eigth injuries, all to his hip muscles. Doctors have not been able to ascertain whether they are linked to his footballing activities or other endeavours.

Balotelli’s Christmas spirit

At Christmas Mario Balotelli walked into a pub in Manchester with his girlfriend Raffaella Fico and shouted everyone a drink. It cost him £1000 he did not even check to see if there were some United supporters among the drinkers.

Later on he went to Mass and donated £200 to the church. Maybe he is not that bad, after all.

Vieri dancing with Rivera?

It’s official. Christian Vieri and Gianni Rivera will be taking part in the Italian version of Dancing with the Stars (Ballando con le stelle). They will be paid $40,000 per show.

Italy to imitate Brazil?

There are 1500 people working on the Belo Horizonte Stadium in Brazil, one of the venues chosen for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Some of them have no problem with accommodation.They are staying at the local jail where they are detained for various misdemeanours.

An example Italy might want to follow. If it was to hire all the people involved in the recent football scandals, they could build a stadium in no time.

A Merry Christmas for some

The big match of the last round before the break (it was in fact the first round after that was postponed due to the strike in August) wrapped up an interesting portion of the Serie A season.

Juventus is still unbeaten; AC Milan is in the lead; Udinese is the surprise team; Lazio is faltering; Napoli scored six goals against Genoa but is just sixth while Roma is on the way up with two wins in as many away matches. And by the way 31 goals were scored in a round of Italian football.

Here we go again

Another day, another scandal for Italian football. Former Atalanta captain (and demi-God to the team’s supporters) Cristiano Doni was arrested following further investigations on match-fixing and illegal betting.

Police took him to jail together with 16 other people. Among them, Luigi Sartor who made world-wide headlines in 1992 when Juventus signed him from Padova for one billion lire, today’s one million dollars. He was 16 at the time and became the most expensive teenager in the history of football.

Doni had already been suspended by the Italian Football Federation for three-and-a-half years for previous indiscretions.

This latest development is bad enough but be ready for more, much more in the next few days. According to Prosecutor Roberto Di Martino “this is not the end but just a starting point”.

And Atalanta may be made to pay dearly for this.

Hypocrisy and good deed

Never to be found wanting when a big dose of hypocrisy is needed, football officials screamed that this match-fixing scandal is a disaster and that something should be done. Forgetting THEY should take action.

I remember a match between Genoa and Inter Milan some years ago. Young Spinelli was a substitute and scored a goal. He was the only one to celebrate while Inter players Salvatore Bagni and Alessandro Altobelli abused him. Spinelli never played football again at the top level and the Federation did absolutely nothing.

Lets hope Simone Farina, 29-year-old defender with Serie B Gubbio, does not end up like Spinelli. It was Farina’s whistle-blowing that started the latest investigation.

Cassano improving

Any question marks about Antonio Cassano improvements following his heart surgery? Cassano himself dispelled any doubts the other day in Genoa, where he was with his wife and child. He assaulted a female journalist and a television cameraman, who was not even filming and had actually switched off his camera before Cassano’s outburst.

The local Journalists Association issued a statement in which it congratulated the player on his newly-found health and invited him to take advantage of his forced lay-off to improve his manners.

The day after the fracas, Cassano phoned the father of the female journalist in order to apologise. He is Enrico Nicolini, ex-Sampdoria player who toured Australia in 1976 with the Italian Army team.

Mazzarri to resign?

The rumour has been already quashed but the story is worth telling. Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri allegedly resigned after the match in Villarreal that guaranteed the club a place in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League.

Mazzarri was sent off against the Spanish side and unimpressed Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis told the coach what he thought of his behaviour. This led to Mazzarri’s reported resignation.

Pity it was not accepted in a flash. Napoli is eight points adrift of third place Udinese in Serie A, the last spot for qualification to the UCL.

Coaching mortality rate

The (football) mortality rate of coaches in Italian football is reaching new heights this season. Thanks, it must be said, to the contribution of chairmen such as Palermo’s Maurizio Zamparini and Cagliari’s Massimo Cellino.

Zamparini was at it again last week, sacking Devis Mangia and replacing him with Bortolo Mutti. Mangia had replaced Stefano Pioli, who is doing reasonably well at Bologna.

Despite, or maybe because of, the coaching merry-go-round, Palermo is yet to win away from home this season.

The last one was the Sicilian derby in Catania, a match that is proving costly for Palermo’s coaches. On its last five trips, five losses and four sackings.

Racism and football a deadly synergy

There were disgusting scenes in Turin when Juventus ultras belonging to the Drughi right wing group set fire to a gipsy shanty town near the new Juventus Stadium. All this because a 16-year-old girl told police that a gipsy had raped her. After caravans and barracks were reduced to ashes the girl confessed she had NOT been raped after all.

Roma in trouble, already.

Followers of this blog would have detected a degree of scepticism every time I have mentioned negotiations for the sale of AS Roma from the Sensi family to the US group headed by Thomas Di Benedetto. The reason was that I saw problems between two different “cultural” groups, one from Italy and one from the US, in dealing with the complexities of the club's problems. Now Di Benedetto’s powers have been curtailed and two new American managers have been appointed to the Board, taking over most of his responsibilities. While nobody cares about Di Benedetto's problems, supporters are up in arms following Francesco Totti's latest outburst. Totti said that he had been thinking about leaving the club and will continue to do so if criticism of his performances continues.

Balotelli, take two

Just as we thought that one Balotelli was enough for football followers to cope with, another one made it to England. It’s Mario's 19-year-old brother Enoch, who trialled with Stoke last week. He is still “raw” according to Dave Stevan, director of the Stoke City Academy. On the brighter side, he looks much more civilised than his big brother.

Mark Bresciano, remember him?

Bresciano made his name in Italy at Empoli, Parma, Palermo and Lazio. When he decided to leave Serie A, he gave A-League a miss (I wonder why) and went to Dubai’s Al Nasr. Following his brace against Bani Yas, his team-mates carried him off the field on their shoulders. Not so lucky, in the same League, Diego Armando Maradona. He was suspended for three weeks, following an argument with fellow coach Cosmin Olaroiu at the end of Al Wasl's loss to Al Ain.

UCL verdicts: and now?

And now what are we going to say about Serie A and Premier League? Napoli, Inter, AC Milan all through to the last 16.

The two Manchester teams are out.

To those of you that rubbish Italian football a friendly word of advice: go an take a Valium.

Napoli had to win in Villarreal, given Manchester City had it easy against Bayern’s reserve team. And win it did despite Villareal having played its best match so far in the competition.

On the eve of the match Napoli chairman Aurelio de Laurentis said that sheiks had paid somebody to provide an incentive for the Spanish team to win. He missed a great chance to keep his mouth shut.

AC Milan had qualified for the knockout phase with one match to spare. Being avid readers of our Tom Findlay’s blog, Massimiliano Allegri and co. decided to acknowledge his criticism (team far too old) and give a chance to a couple of youngsters.

Nineteen-year-old Matteo De Sciglio started the game in Prague and Bryan Cristante came on as a substitute in the 81st minute. Just in time to establish a new record. At 16 he became the youngest player ever to take the field for the Rossoneri in a Champions League match.

Inter Milan managed to lose even at home against CSKA Moscow. The Russian side qualifying in second spot, behind the Italians

Diego Milito played his 100th game for Inter. He gave a huge contribution to the Nerazzurri successes (I’m not talking about this season), but he could be on his way out.

The likely destination is Genoa, the club he left to join Inter.

Serse Cosmi is back

The eighth coach of the season has been fired in Italy, this time Eusebio De Francesco.

Admittedly, he had a disastrous stay at Lecce with a total of nine losses in 13 games. He will be replaced by Serse Cosmi, a character who may inject into the Lecce team exactly what is badly needed, a bit of fire.

Last year Cosmi had a brief stay at Palermo. It didn’t take long before fireworks exploded between him and chairman Maurizio Zamparini.

Football Museum's new additions

The suburb of Coverciano, in Florence, hosts the headquarters of FIGC (the Italian Football Federation). As well as wonderful training facilities and hotel-like accommodation for players and technical staff, Coverciano is also home to the Museum of Italian Football.

This week a number of football personalities were inducted into the Hall of Fame: Gigi Riva, Roberto Baggio, Adriano Galliani, Arrigo Sacchi, Marcello Lippi and even UEFA President Michel Platini.

With the exception of Riva, they were all present at the Museum. Pity some of them were all let out at the end of the ceremony.

Euro 2012 draw

Italy was drawn with exactly the two teams it did NOT want to face at the European Championship. I’m referring to Spain and Giovanni Trapattoni’s Republic of Ireland, the fourth team in the group being Croatia.

Oddly enough, a few days earlier coach Cesare Prandelli explained to the media that his ambition would be to see Italy “playing with a smile”.

Interesting to check how many smiles will be around after the initial match against Spain.

Where for art thou Beni?

Finally, do you remember Benito Carbone? He played a few matches with Sydney FC some seasons ago, set the league on fire, created some controversy and went back to Italy where he played in third division with Pavia (so much for the quality of the A-League).

Now he is in the running to coach the national team of Albania. One way, I suspect, to pay for his past sins.

Great advertisement for the game

What a great match between Napoli and Juventus, which ended 3-all. Napoli weas twice leading by two goals, only for Juventus to come back each time. Still unbeaten, Antonio Conti's men have a two-point margin over AC Milan and Udinese. Even Pandev got into the spirit of things and scored two goals for Napoli, prompting chairman Aurelio De Laurentis to say that the Macedonian striker is a great player. He’s got to be joking.

Lotito out of pocket

Lazio Chairman Claudio Lotito is often embroiled in controversy. He made his fortune with a company involved in rubbish disposal. Grateful for the line of business that made him a rich man, Lotito is never too far away from dirty deals. A Court in Naples has found him guilty of trying to affect the result of some matches and sentenced him to eighteen months. Now the Federation has found him guilty of bringing the game into disrepute and fined him $40,000. But Lotito won’t go away. Like the bad smells that made him rich.

Juventus’s transfers

Congratulations to those of you who commented on my mistake last week. One of the departing players is of course Iaquinta and not Iuliano. The latter left ages ago and found consolation, regrettably, in cocaine. An average player, Iuliano was called up for the national team in 1998 and was part of its set-up until 2003, more because he was a Juventus player than because he was a great player. His best friend was Christian Vieri who, on Iuliano’s debut, sent him this congratulatory message: “You in the national team? The world of football is coming to an end”.

One player who won’t leave Juventus is the Dutchman Elia. He has already been signed by Hamburg, Werder Bremen and Juventus this season. FIFA rules stipulate that he cannot sign for a fourth club.

Denis the menace

Argentinian striker German Denis is leading goal-scorer in Italy. Ridiculed in Naples, misunderstood at Udinese, he is firing on all cylinders at Atalanta. In one of the wonderful ironies that football keeps providing us with, he scored against his former team, Napoli.

It was his 10th goal of the season, worth a $100,000 bonus. Denis, incidentally, is the only South American top of the goal-scorers list in Europe.

Roma’s fighting spirit

Roma sits in seventh position in Serie A, nine points behind competition leader Juventus. Various pundits have been trying to pin-point what the causes are for its dismal performances so far this season. However, they have to agree that it cannot be the lack of fighting spirit. Following the defeat at Udinese, Osvaldo criticised Erik Lamela for not passing him the ball when he, Osvaldo, was in favourable position and the score at 0-0.

When 20-year old Argentinian Lamela answered “After all you are not Maradona”, Osvaldo simply beat him up in the dressing room. He was suspended for ten days and fined $40,000. The situation in the Roma dressing room has now improved. After Osvaldo shouted the whole squad to dinner.

See Naples and then die

The aforementioned is a saying well-known to generations of visitors to the beautiful city of Naples and to Neapolitans themselves. Now, some players and their wives are wondering whether there is more to it than simply an ancient way of emphasising the city’s beauty. The house of Edinson Cavani was ransacked while he was away on international duty. Marek Hamsik’s wife, who happens to be pregnant, was stopped at gunpoint and thieves run away with her luxury car. The girlfriend of “Pocho” Lavezzi, Yanina Screpante, was the victim of a hold-up, and was robbed of her Rolex. Some say it’s just a coincidence. Others suggest it may be an international conspiracy to get Napoli’s best players on the cheap.

Italy in brief

- Franco Baldini, the former right hand man of Fabio Capello (is Fabio, by any chance, left handed?) is now General Manager at Roma. He decided to set an example and cut his own salary by $ 300,000.

- Giovanni Trapattoni has signed a two-year extension to his contract with the Republic of Ireland. In order to clinch the deal he had to take a pay cut worth $300,000. For the next two years the 72-year-old coach will have to make do with 1.5 million dollars a year.

- Federico Macheda is back! Following a disappointing season on loan to Sampdoria, he has finally played for Manchester United. For the grand total of two minutes.

- Beppe Signori, the former Italian international charged in connection with match fixing in a number of matches, has opened a new restaurant. He’ll probably try to “buy” a couple of Michelin stars.

- The area were the San Paolo Stadium was built in Naples registers tremors at the local earthquake control centre every time Napoli scores.

Knockout rounds, here we come

By "they"I mean the Italian teams: AC Milan, Inter and Napoli. Diego Maradona's mob is in the box seat following its home win over versus Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City. Mancini’s mother-in-law comes from Naples, his wife comes from Naples, even his tailor comes from Naples. Following the defeat he’ll probably sack his tailor, although the wife and mother-in-law might prove more difficult to dispose of. Like Craig Foster said in his SBS TV commentary, it is difficult to understand why, having Aguero on the bench and needing a goal, he threw Maradona’s son-in-law into the fire with only ten minutes to go.

Inter Milan players knew before they took the field against Turkey’s Trabzonspor that they had already qualified. So Claudio Ranieri’s team went one better, with a draw that gives it first place in its group.

Milan was defeated 3-2 by Barceelona at the San Siro at the end of a great match. If you concede three goals at home in a vital match you don’t deserve to finish first in your group. Finally, for Milan and Napoli (if the Neapolitan side qualifies) a great hope. Finishing second in the group may mean meeting Apoel Nicosia in the last 16.

Refereeing disasters

Referees and their assistants (with friends like those who needs enemies?) have had a disaster of a round in Serie A. The first goal by Thiago Motta for Inter in the home match against Cagliari was scored from a blatant offside position. In Fiorentina Milan had a perfectly regular goal by Clarence Seedorf disallowed. In the Roma versus Lecce match, Roma centre forward Osvaldo scored a fabulous goal, similar to Wayne Rooney’s volley in the Premier League.

Again, the goal was disallowed, but Osvaldo was not in an offside position. In Napoli a goal to Napoli's Edinson Cavani was disallowed for a non-existent offside. These mistakes have affected the standings and some of the victim-clubs will pay dearly in terms of Scudetto, qualification for the UCL and the Europa League. Will referees and assistants pay for THEIR mistakes? You know the answer.

Juve to win top of Serie A match?

The current competition leader is there to stay. Juve visits Lazio this week and a win in Rome would set the scene for another big match in Naples the following week. Juventus is taking advantage of the fact that it has no Europe commitments, something of an advantage. However, it is going to be busy in January, when the transfer market re-opens. Out will go the likes of Iaquinta, Quagliarella, Krasic, Elia. The defence will probably be strengthened by signing Gary Cahill while Bonucci will make way for him by moving to Roma. The giallorossi are desperate for a central defender, following the season-ending knee injury to Nicholas Burdisso.

Palermo’s record

The team from Sicily would be vying for the Scudetto if it played every match at home and be a relegation certainty if it played always away. Its record in matches outside Sicily is abysmal. Six matches played, one point out of a possible 18. Last goal scored in Genoa versus Sampdoria, 544 minutes ago on May 12. No top flight team in Europe has fared so badly.

Italy in pieces

- Fabio Capello went back to Roma's Trigoria headquarters where he reigned supreme a few years ago at the invitation of Franco Baldini, his former partner in crime for the England national team. He was at pains to explain that it was a courtesy visit. Not the first step towards dislodging Luis Enrique from the Roma bench.

- An exciting, so to speak, pre-match morning for Napoli prior to the match against Manchester City. Some of the players were evacuated from their hotel because of a fire. Marek Hamsik’s wife was victim of a car-jacking at gun point a few hours before the match. Thieves stole her luxury car, but had to abandon it a few kilometres from the scene. When they realised it had a satellite device which allowed police to track the car down in a matter of minutes.

- Bertrand Crasson, a Belgian international defender who played for Napoli without much distinction between 1996 and 1998, has revealed in a TV interview that he was injected with a mysterious substance twice a week while in Naples. He was immediately dismissed by Brazilian Caio, who was playing in Naples in the same period on loan from Inter. Caio, by the way, promised a lot but had a very disappointing career. Which did not prevent him being at the San Paolo for the big match versus City.

- Juventus has been incurring an incredible number of injuries in the last three years. Sixty-four last season and more than 200 since it moved to its new training centre, Vinovo in 2008. Doctors are blaming the humidity of the area. Others are blaming the doctors.

- AS Roma, now in the hands of American interests, is still looking for more investors. This time, Chinese investment funds. What a cocktail: Italians, Americans and Chinese. A road to success or a disastrous course towards the Tower of Babel?

- The Italian national team has dropped three places in the FIFA standings, With Spain still at the top. Italians are now ninth.

- Matteo Sereni, the best goalkeeper never to play for a really top club in Italy, has been accused by his former wife (and former agent) to have molested their eight-year-old daughter. The former Ipswich stopper has been prevented from seeing his children for over one year by his former wife. He’s already been proven innocent in a previous trial, but the charming lady is having another go at him.

Italy’s record gone

One of the most abused cliches in the world of sport is that “records are made to be broken”. Well, Italy achieved a double in the against Uruguay in Rome this week. It lost its unbeaten home record (five and a half years), and allowed Uruguay to finally register a win in Italy after thirty years. The South American side’s last win was on 3 January, 1981.

On a brighter note, Gianluigi Buffon played his 112th game for the national team, equalling the record held by Dino Zoff. Talking of which, Zoff rejected an invitation by the national federation to attend the match. The invitation extended to all the world cup winners residing in Rome. Zoff has a long memory.

Tales of Italian coaches

:: Roberto Mancini will soon be offered the keys to Manchester (the blue half of it at least), following the great season his team is having.

:: Giovanni Trapattoni has taken the Republic of Ireland to the prestigious qualification for the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine. He would be crowned “King”, if in that part of the world the “monarchy” were not so unpopular.

:: But there is a coach who is having problems, the ubiquitous Marcello Lippi. After the disastrous World Cup in South Africa he announced to the few people who were still interested in listening to his arrogant garbage, that he would take a year off and then resume coaching.

Two years have gone by and Lippi is still without a team. Ever the modest incarnation of a successful coach he has announced to the world that he would like to be a national team coach at the Brazil World Cup in 2014. With the likes of San Marino and Andorra out of the competition Asia and Africa look like his best bet. Unless Holger Osieck...

Inter triumph

Inter Milan has finally found a way to win a match. It chose to play in Switzerland last week. Its opponent? Mighty Chiasso, from Switzerland Second Division.

On a brighter note, Inter’s youth academy is providing more money than a bank. In the last few years, the sale of players coming from the youth system has netted more than 80 million euros. Pity some of the players are better than those currently in Inter’s squad. A few names? Obafemi Martins, Marco Andreolli, Davide Santon, Robert Acquafresca and, the best of them all, Mario Balotelli.

The American owners of Roma wish their club was in the same position. Instead, they do not know how to get rid of players they think they do not need. January is going to be a busy month for club officials. They must get rid of Marco Borriello, Juan, Fabio Simplicio, Leandro Greco, Cicinho, Rodrigo Taddei, Stefano Okaka, Vitorino Antunez and Ahmed Barusso. Their combined value is estimated at about 30 million dollars, but most importantly the club would save on their salaries, allegedly amounting to an incredible $21 million.

Juventus versus the world

The young Chairman of Juventus, Andrea Agnelli, is continuing in his campaign to have the 2006 Scudetto taken away from Inter Milan. This, despite the recent verdict by a Naples Court that has found the bianconeri former General Manager, Luciano Moggi, guilty as charged in relation to various episodes of corruption.

According to some Italian observers, far from worrying about the 2006 Scudetto, Agnelli should relinquish all the trophies won in the period 1994-2006, when Moggi was at his best (or is it worst?) in arranging results with the help of friendly referees. Not to mention the doping of Juventus players denounced by Zdenek Zeman, proven by Turin judge Raffaele Guariniello, and no longer pursued by authorities because of the statute of limitations.

Football and Italian hospitals

Italian hospitals, under stress at the best of times, face a crisis created by football personalities.

:: Rino Gattuso has only recently been given the green light to resume training after months spent trying to regain the sight of his left eye.

:: Aldo Agroppi, former player with Torino, coach with Fiorentina and TV commentator with various networks, was admitted yesterday following a heart attack. He decided to forgo a brilliant coaching career, because he could not handle the stress, a few years ago.

:: Zdenek Zeman was admitted to a hospital in Pescara yesterday. He has kidney problems.

:: Nicolas Burdisso, the Roma central defender, will have to have an operation to his knee. He suffered ligament damages playing for Argentina in the match won 2-1 against Colombia. He will be out for at least six months.

Vieri’s elusive €800,000

No sooner had Italian newspapers screamed headlines about Christian Vieri receiving €800,000 euros to take part in the Italian version of “Dancing With The Stars” that managers at RAI (the Italian equivalent of ABC, only much worse) intervened. The contract is off, unless it’s going to be reduced substantially.

One chairman and two coaches sent packing

Quite an exciting week in Italian football. The Chairman of AC Milan Silvio Berlusconi – in his capacity as Italian Prime Minister – has been forced to resign. It’s a slow-motion resignation since it has been announced, but it won't take place just yet.

On the coaching front, Sinisa Mihajlovic and Massimo Ficcadenti were sacked from Fiorentina and Cagliari respectively.

Mihajlovic is going to be replaced by Delio Rossi, the former Lazio and Palermo coach. Hopefully he will give a chance to the many top class young players ignored by the Serb.

Ficcadenti is yet another victim of Cagliari chairman Massimo Cellino. The owner of Cagliari for 21 years has only finished the season with the same coach he started it with on seven occasions.

His next victim is going to be Davide Ballardini who has been at Cagliari on two previous occasions.

It's total madness: seven coaches have been sacked in Serie A after 10 round.

Calciopoli: convictions at last

The Calciopoli trial has ended in Naples with tough sentences for some most well known football identities. Luciano Moggi copped more than five years, Claudio Lotito (Lazio chairman) one year and two months, the two Della Valle brothers, Andrea and Diego (owner and chairman of Fiorentina) one year and two months and referees boss Paolo Bergamo three years and eight months.

There will be appeals that, in the sick tradition of Italian justice, will drag on for years.

But one immediate, serious, consequence is that people such as Lotito, the two Della Valle and others will be unable to represent their respective clubs.

I say “will”, because that’s the law but I think I should say “should”, since some loophole will be found for them.

Football and the courts

Mario Balotelli and Ezequiel Lavezzi have appeared recently in front of a Naples prosecutor who is investigating the Camorra, the local Mafia.

Lavezzi is seen as too close to a local Camorra boss to whom – believe it or not – he used to entrust his expensive watches when away from Naples. (It’s HIS version not mine!).

Balotelli admitted having visited Scampia with another Camorra boss. Scampia is one of the biggest markets in Europe for the distribution of drugs and Super Mario readily admitted: “I saw packets of coke ten metres away from me”.

We do not know whether he had with him a 10 metre barge pole and a hook.

The Azzurri

While the Italian national team has been preparing for the two friendlies against Poland and Uruguay, there was no shortage of issues at the daily media conferences.

Cesare Prandelli announced he will be an actor in a forthcoming movie.

He then provided the media with silly excuses as to why Antonio Di Natale, leading goal scorer in the past two seasons and in the current one, has not been selected despite serious injuries to Antonio Cassano and Giuseppe Rossi.

Balotelli assured everyone he may be stupid but he is not mad (or vice versa, whatever you prefer).

Pizza connection

Antonio Conte – having consulted the Juventus dietician – stamped out the terrible act of his players eating pizza.

The edict was issued just a few days before the team was due to go to Naples, the home of pizza, for the important match against Napoli.

Low IQ or bad manners?

An amazing incident whilst Chievo and Fiorentina were observing a one-minute silence for the victims of recent floodings in Italy. Riccardo Montolivo was caught by the TV camera laughing. So I ask again: Low IQ or simply bad manners?