Events on the pitch in Italy were overshadowed by a bribery scandal involving several top clubs. Matthew Barker looks back on a memorable season in Serie A

The long-term significance
The fallout from the Calciopoli bribery scandals has yet to settle, with a number of phone-tap recordings surfacing in recent months. Inter, at the centre of new (unproven) accusations, are under increasing pressure to relinquish the 2005-06 Scudetto, awarded to them after it was stripped from Juventus. The bianconeri’s title from the 2004-05 season stands in the record books as void. The original sentencing was announced on July 14, 2006, less than a week after the Azzurri lifted the World Cup in Berlin. Of the top-tier clubs involved, Juventus were sent down to Serie B with a nine-point (originally 30-point) deduction for the following season. Lazio and Fiorentina’s points deductions were increased on appeal, from seven to 11 and 12 to 15 respectively, though both original punishments had included demotion to the second division. Reggina were deducted 11 points (originally 15), while Milan were docked eight (44) and, following an appeal, allowed into the following season’s Champions League, which they then went on to win.

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FIFA's approach to safeguarding profit from this year's football tournament is particularly aggressive. Simon Cotterill reports

FIFA has generated a record $3.3 billion (£2.2bn) in marketing and television rights ahead of this summer’s World Cup. Big brands have paid big money for association with the tournament. In return they’ll be protected by FIFA’s strict trademark regulations which prevent unofficial associations diluting the messages of official sponsors. Many in South Africa have criticised the heavy-handed way FIFA have been enforcing their often ridiculous regulations.

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Greg Norman explains why both political and sporting reforms are needed in South America's poorest country

Despite playing at La Paz’s atmospheric Estadio Hernando Siles, the world’s highest international venue, the national team is, at 67, the lowest ranked South American side. Meanwhile, a league whose second most successful team in history is called The Strongest is, unsurprisingly, statistically the continent’s weakest in recent years. The last 16 of this year’s Copa Libertadores featured teams from eight different countries, yet Bolivian teams Bolívar and Blooming finished bottom of their groups with five points between them.

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Events at the interval have chnaged greatly since the days of the police dog-handling display. Matthew Gooding highlights the tedious, the surreal and those for a good cause

You expect to see certain things at football matches – grumpy old men, over-excited children, pies containing meat of dubious origin. But in all my years watching football I never expected to see Timmy Mallett taking penalties against a moose, using a pair of giant testicles, while a Sven-Göran Eriksson lookalike watched on. As anyone who was at the recent Blue Square Premier match between Cambridge Utd and Oxford Utd will tell you, it really happened, and it was glorious.

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Thirty years ago this month Mossley AFC went to Wembley. Drew Whitworth remembers the club's greatest day and the story of a once-formidable Northern Premier League side on a very personal level

Between Oldham and Stockport, where the huge Greater Manchester conurbation breaks against the rocks and moors of the Pennines, there lies Tameside. This metropolitan borough has no historical centre, being a collection of old mill towns of which few people have ever heard. In football terms it is a backwater, without representation above the Conference North.

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