Did Giorgio Chinaglia try to make the president of Lazio an offer he couldn’t refuse? Matthew Barker reports on a playing legend being charged with extortion
Giorgio Chinaglia has never been a man to waste too much time worrying about what others might think of him. Certainly few in Italy are expecting the one-time Azzurri striker to turn up at a Rome courthouse on October 26 to answer accusations of extortion and trying to manipulate share prices.
He looked as though he might be a key player for Barcelona, but now Lazio can't give him away. Paul Virgo profiles the man who is following him around Europe
In the summer of 1998 the Lazio president Sergio Cragnotti forked out £10 million for a promising Spanish lad called Ivan de la Peña. Not a modest sum by any stretch, but Cragnotti was satisfied it was money well spent. According to reliable sources he’d landed himself the next Maradona. Offer Cragnotti the price of a second-hand Fiat Panda for De la Peña today and he’ll take your arm off.
Thursday 1 Chelsea go out of the UEFA Cup after a 1-1 draw with Hapoel Tel-Aviv. Claudio Ranieri keeps his sunny side up: “The result went against us but it was a brilliant performance.” Leeds survive a scare in Troyes, where they lose 3-2 but go through 6-5 on aggregate. Ipswich save their best till last again, winning 3-1 in Helsingborg. Stung by rejection, Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan refuses to accept Steve Bruce’s attempt to resign as manager: “At no time will Steve be allowed to talk to Birmingham.” Bruce will not, however, be taking charge of Palace’s team at the weekend.
Friday 2 The Bishop of Oxford blesses the pitch at Oxford United’s supposedly unlucky new ground. “There was talk among some players of a sense of evil – they interpreted it as a curse,” says a church spokesman.
The proliferation of cases involving players with fake passports has led to questions being raised about the right of many foreign-born footballer to play in Europe. But, as Pierre Lanfranchi and Matthew Taylor argue, dual nationality itself is not the issue
Nationality, as certain European football clubs are discovering to their cost, is not necessarily a straightforward matter. Just ask fans of St Etienne, who saw their club drop five places in the French league in January when the league’s judicial commission judged that two of the club’s players, the Brazilian Alex and the Ukrainian Maxim Levitsky, had been using false European Union passports. The initial penalty of seven points was first reduced on appeal then reinstated, making their position one place off the bottom of the league even more perilous
Fake passports are being bought by non EU players in Italy. Filippo Ricci tells who and why
It’s never quiet at Lazio. After a long investigation, one of the club’s star players, Argentinian international Juan Sebastián Veron, is to face trial having been accused of falsely obtaining an Italian passport.