Italy

Thu, March 6th 2008

From: The Guardian - Sid Lowe finds the Spanish media desperate to put some kind of gloss on the unthinkable - that their rivals across the Med play better football

Over here, people think Italian football is dirty, cynical, talentless and boring. Few Italians have succeeded in Spain because they are rubbish, they say, while few Spaniards have succeeded in Italy because the football is rubbish - and full of cheats.

 

Comments



Mon, November 6th 2006

Ronaldinho heads FIFPro poll of 40,000 players

Italians and French dominate best eleven

Barcelona and Brazil’s Ronaldinho has been named the world’s top player for the second time in succession in FIFPro’s poll of over 40,000 players worldwide.

Read More

Tue, August 15th 2006

The Sun newspaper is reporting that Newcastle will tell Inter Milan to drop the £10m asking price for Obafemi Martins because the Magpies are looking into rumours from Nigeria that the striker is possibly six years older than his reported age of 21.

Via: BBC

 

Comments

Fri, July 21st 2006

Materazzi banned for Zidane insult

FIFA set dangerous precedent

FIFA have announced that Italy defender Materazzi will receive a £2,170 fine and 2 game suspension, and Zidane a £3,260 fine and 3 game ban.

In choosing to punishing the ‘victim’ nearly as strongly as the perpetrator, FIFA have given players a who commit serious foul play a dangerous ‘get out’ by allowiing provocation to be blamed.

Read More

Mon, July 17th 2006

With Juve effectively relegated for 2 seasons due to their 30 point deduction in Serie B it seems inconceivable that they will be able to hang on to all their players or even loan them out for a year.

Not too many leagues will be able to match the Italian clubs’ salaries, so England will be a likely destination for many who leave.

Here’s a list of transfer speculation of England’s top clubs and who they are targetting.

Chelsea

Alessandro Nesta (Milan), Fabio Cannavaro, Pavel Nedved, Gianluca Zambrotta (Juve);

Manchester United

Patrick Vieira, Pavel Nedved (Juve), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Luca Toni (Fiorentina)

Liverpool

Mauro Camoranesi, David Trezeguet (Juve)

Arsenal

Gianluigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira, David Trezeguet (Juve), Filippo Inzaghi (Milan)

Tottenham

Lilian Thuram (Juve), Filippo Inzaghi (Milan)

Source: BBC

Comments

Serie A sides Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina have been demoted to the second division for their involvement in Italy’s match-fixing scandal.

Juventus were also stripped of their last two Serie A titles and had 30 points deducted, meaning they are likely to stay down for two seasons.

AC Milan will stay in Serie A but will start the season docked 15 points.

All are barred from playing in Europe.

Inter, Roma, Chievo and Palermo, who finished third, fifth, seventh and eighth, are in line to take the places of the penalised clubs in next season’s Champions League.

Lecce, Messina, and Treviso will avoid relegation to Serie B and keep their places in the top flight as a result of the verdict.

From: BBC

 

All 4 clubs are expected to appeal.

Related: Juventus face relegation from Serie A

 

Comments

Tue, July 11th 2006

After an exhaustive study of the match video, and with the help of an Italian translator, Rees claimed that Materazzi called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore” before adding “so just f*** off” for good measure.

From: The Times

 

Seems to be corroborated here: The Daily Mail

3 Comments

Mon, July 10th 2006

Zidane red card overshadows Italian triumph

Italy 1 - France 1 (Italy win on penalties)

Zinedine Zidane’s career came to a staggering end as he saw red for his brutal head butt on Italian Materrazi.

Read More

Wed, July 5th 2006

Italy dump out hosts in game of the tournament

Italy 2 - Germany 0

After a raft of uninspired knock-out phase matches, the hosts Germany and Italy fought out one of the most exciting semi-finals of all time, and restored the reputation of the World Cup.

Read More

Tue, July 4th 2006

The Italian Football Federation’s prosecutor has called for all four clubs at the centre of the match-fixing scandal to be thrown out of Serie A.

From: BBC

 

Comments

Page 1 of 2 pages  1 2 >