Search: 'Venezia'

Strange brown envelopes at Genoa, ominous red ink at the bank for Torino, taxing times for Messina: it has been an angry summer in Italy, as Matt Barker explains

It’s difficult to know for whom to feel the most sorry. The long-suffering fans of Genoa who, still bleary-eyed from celebrating their return to Serie A after ten years, discovered that the club had been accused of match-fixing. Or maybe the Torino tifosi who, having survived a play-off against Perugia, were looking forward to life back in the top division, only to be told that Il Toro were to face charges of false accounting.

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It's been 20 years since the island had a team in Serie A, but as Matt Barker writes, it looks as if Palermo and Messina will both be in the top flight next season

 W ith Milan’s 17th Scudetto done and dusted, Italian attention has passed in recent weeks to the promotion chase, or rather marathon, down in Serie B. From next season Italy’s top division will expand to 20, a consequence of last year’s shenanigans that followed threats of legal action when Siena fielded an ineligible player. The Italian football federation re­instated the teams relegated from the second division (and took Fiorentina up from Serie C2 with them). Five sides will now go up from an expanded B, with a sixth playing off against Perugia.

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The signs are good for Japan's chances at the World Cup, but less so for anyone who might want to go and watch any of the matches. Justin McCurry reports on the co-hosts' preparations

For all their supposed organisational acumen, Japan’s foot­ball authorities seem to stumble whenever tickets enter the equation. Three years ago, thousands of Jap­anese fans who had booked on package tours to France 98 turned up at Tokyo’s Narita airport to find their tickets had failed to materialise. Just last month, refunds were being offered to 62,000 people who had bought tickets for a combined Korea-Japan v World All-Stars match on January 3 after stars such as Zin­edine Zidane and Paolo Maldini withdrew because of changes to the Serie A schedule.

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This Italian season is different from its predecessors in at least one significant resepct. Filippo Ricci reports

Castel di Sangro is a village in the centre of Italy. Not far from Rome, heading east, lost in the mountains. There are 5,635 inhabitants. There is a football stadium, obviously, named Teofilo Patini, that can hold 2,100 people. At the end of last season Castel di Sangro were promoted to the second division, Serie B. Never in the history of Italian football has a small village team got so high up the league. When they beat Ascoli away in the final of the promotion playoff, the entire population waited to greet the team on their return.

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