5 years ago, the Italian league was rocked by a scandal, the likes of which the footballing world had not seen before. A number of telephone interceptions showed a network between managers of several top-flight teams, and the referee organisations, with the teams effectively implicated of rigging games by selecting favourable referees.
Moggi, former Juventus manager given a lifetime ban following the scandal
The 2004-05 and the 2005-06 Seria A titles had both finished with Juventus 1st and AC Milan 2nd. Following investigation into the scandal, it was decided that Juventus would be relegated to Serie B, and that their two titles for 2004-05 and 2005-06 stripped from their record.
As such, no one was awarded the 2004-05 title- the only gap in records since World War II (when the Italian national team, world champions in 1938, retained the trophy for 12 years due to the Second World War stopping the tournament from taking place- one for the pub quizzes!)
In addition, the 2005-06 title was stripped from Juventus. As AC Milan, among others, were implicated in the scandal, and also deducted points and denied entry to the 2006-07 Champions League (at least, denied automatic entry), the title instead was awarded to the 3rd place team, Internazionale.
So, since 2006, Inter Milan have been accredited with the Serie A title for that season. But, recently, new evidence suggested that this too was the wrong decision. Inter have been under investigation since last year after lawyers suggested phonetaps implicated Inter in the affair also.
The club denied any wrongdoing, and despite a report by FIGC (the Italian football federation) prosecutors accusing Inter of fraud, the executive committee's majority vote, earlier today, that a revoking of the 2005-06 Scudetto was beyond its jurisdiction, has put the affair to bed, and it looks like Inter Milan will retain the title.
Italian giants Internazionale will sport a new all-white away kit for the upcoming season of domestic and European football.
The ice white away kit features brown inserts on the edge of the sleeves, logos and 'INTER' on the back of the V-neck collar. Manufactured by sportswear giants Nike, the shirt is made from 100% polyester with Dri-FIT technology special features such as a raglan sleeve, mesh side panels, badge to left chest, swoosh to right chest and the sponsor's logo in the centre.
The shirt is matched with brown shorts and white socks.
Serie A champions Internazionale aka Inter Milan has released a new home kit for the 2008-09 season of Italian football.
Finished in the traditional home colours of blue and black stripes, the Nike manufactured shirt is made from 100% polyester with Dri-FIT technology. The short sleeve match-day shirt features a raglan sleeve, V-neck neckline, mesh side panels, badge to left chest, swoosh to right chest and the sponsor's in the centre.
Could Internazionale be wearing this shirt to Euro glory under the helm of 'The Special One', Jose Mourinho in 2009?
It's officially official - ex-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has been confirmed as the new boss of Serie A champions Internazionale.
The signing of the 'Special One' has been one of the worst kept secrets in football with the colourful Portugese continually linked to the post since departing Chelsea in September last year. After the Serie A champions finally parted company with Roberto Mancini last week, rumours that the Portuguese boss would be signed up by the club went into overdrive.
Mourinho has signed a three-year deal at the San Siro worth a reported £22.2million and will be charged with winning the Champions League for the Italian giants with the help of a backroom staff including Rui Farias, Silvino, Andrei Villas Boas and assistant coach Giuseppe Baresi, the former Director of the Youth Academy.
The ex-Chelsea boss is tipped to raid his former club for Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Ricardo Carvalho plus Samuel Eto’o and Deco from Barcelona. With a rumoured £100m transfer kitty, it's possible that he could sign ALL those players.
“Il Speciale Uno” will be unveiled by the club at a special press conference today.
Tue, Mar 11: UEFA Champions League (Round of 16 2ND Leg)
Inter Milan 0 - 1 Liverpool
SUMMARY:
2004-05 Champion's League winners Liverpool are through to the quarter finals of the 07/08 competition after a convincing 3-0 (agg) win over Serie A leaders Internazionale.
After taking a 2-0 lead in the first leg at Anfield, Liverpool visited the Italian giants' own backyard to win 1-0 at the San Siro courtesy of a brilliant Fernando Torres goal to make it four English sides in the last eight of Europe's premier club competition.
Inter had yet another player sent off after Nicolas Burdisso picked up two offences and was given his marching orders in the 50th minute. The visitors, who had been playing beautifully up to that point, seized the opportunity to take the game beyond the home side with Spanish sensation Fernando Torres scoring his 26th goal of the season in the 63rd minute
Receiving the ball from Fabio Aurelio with his back to goal, Torres turned and unleashed in one swift motion to send the ball in the right hand corner. From then on, it was game over as the Reds snuffed out whatever little chance Inter had to claim the 12th European Cup quarter-final place in their history.
There are too many overseas players in the English Premier League. We don't have enough of our players playing at the top level. Our players don't get to play Champions League.
These are all familiar cries in the rush to find excuses for the failure of the English national team. I have to admit that I've been drawn towards that argument at times, and I can see that it has some merit.
Last night however, for me, the argument fell apart at the seams. Inter played at Liverpool in the Champions League, and they had only one Italian player in their ranks. There were several South Americans and a Swede, but only one Italian.
Inter are eleven points clear at the top of Serie A and are clearly the best team in Italy. None of their country's top players play for them.
I look at AC Milan, European champions, and I see some top Italian players but I see Serginho, Kaka, Dida and Cafu from Brazil, Simic from Croatia, and the great Clarence Seedorf from Holland.
All of these 'foreign' players at the two Milan clubs must be holding back the chances of the Italian national team, mustn't they? Oh no, Italy are the World Champions.
Looks like several people, including me, had better try to think of a different excuse.
Schalke 04 1 - 0 FC Porto
Liverpool 2 - 0 Inter Milan
Roma 2 - 1 Real Madrid
Olympiacos 0 - 0 Chelsea
SUMMARY:
Rafa Benitez's Liverpool has a knack for playing their best football in Europe and it was the same case overnight as the Mighty Reds came back from an embarrassing 2-0 loss against Barnsley to beat Italian giants Inter Milan 2-0 at Anfield.
The most ardent of Liverpool fans would have been worried by the prospect of facing the form side in Europe in the middle of a horrendous form slump, but Benitez's men had other ideas as Inter collapsed spectacularly in the last five minutes.
Dutchman Dirk Kuyt made it two goals in two games with his 85th minute opener, a deflected right-foot shot before talismanic captain Steven Gerrard took possession on the far right corner of the box and fired the second home off the far post in injury time.
While life was made easier for the Reds after the sending off of Marco Materazzi for two bookable offences on the half hour mark, the Italians defended bravely for almost an hour until the home side did enough to finally make a breakthrough.
There is still plenty to play for in the second leg of this intriguing tie.
Elsewhere, Roma were fourth time lucky as they beat Spanish giants Real Madrid 2-1 at home at the fourth attempt. Spanish striker Raul opened the scoring the visitors in the 8th minute, but Roma equalised through Pizarro in the 24th minute before Mancini sealed the game with a 58th minute winner.
Real, with a precious away goal, will fancy their chances when the return leg takes place at the Bernabeu.
Schalke 04 played admirably in their first appearance in the knockout phase of the Champions League, beating FC Porto 1-0 while English Premier League side Chelsea were held to a bore draw by Greek side Olympiacos.
Italian giants and reigning Serie A Inter Milan (Internazionale) champions will be celebrating their centenary season with a new home kit for 2007-08.
The new kit, in traditional blue and black stripes, will feature a special centenary "1908 - 2008 100 Anni Inter" logo and is made from 100% polyester incorporating DRI-FIT technology by sportswear giants Nike.
Italian giants FC Internazionale, or Inter, are celebrating their 100th anniversary in 2008 with the launch of a new away kit to commemorate this historic moment in the club's history.
The white shirt with a central red cross and short red strips on the sleeve and hem-line is made from 100% polyester incorporating Nike's Dri-FIT technology.
The Nike logo is on the left with the special "1908-2008" club logo on the right. The club's sponsor, Pirelli, is located underneath the crest.
The second batch of Champion's League first round knock-out matches took place overnight with the highly anticipated clash between the two most recent Champion's League winning teams Liverpool and Barcelona taking centre stage.
After a traumatic week for Liverpool when reports of a training ground bust-up between bad-boy Craig Bellamy and John Arne Riise made the headlines, the two players settled their differences on the pitch by scoring a goal apiece to down Barcelona 2-1 away from home.
Liverpool made a confident start but found themselves a goal down in the 14th minute when Barcelona's Portguese midfielder Deco headed in the first goal for the home side.
Shell-shocked but refusing to buckle under the sustained pressure of Barcelona's fabulous attacking game, the Reds found an equaliser through "golf-club swinging" bad-boy Craig Bellamy when the Welshman powered in a header which keeper Victor Valdes was unable to keep hold of.
Proving that he can make assists as well as score goals, Bellamy went on to play a loose ball across goal for the unmarked Riise to blast right-footed into the roof of the net in the 74th minute to give the mighty Reds a commanding lead ahead of the return fixture in a fortnight's time.
This morale boosting victory ensured that Liverpool's class of 07' became the only side to win at the Nou camp since the 1975-76 Liverpool team, which downed Barca 1-0 in the UEFA Cup semi-finals before going on to win the final.
Elsewhere, Andriy Shevchenko added to his wonderful goal scoring record in Europe by scoring Chelsea's only goal of the match in a one-all draw with Portguese side Porto.
The result, in Chelsea's favour by virtue of the away goals rule, was soured by the news of an ankle ligament injury sustained by England captain John Terry who will now be out for a few weeks.
The two other Champion's League matches also resulted in a draw: the match between Roma and Lyon remained scoreless after 90 minutes and the Inter Milan - Valencia ended at two goals a piece.
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