Italy asks where now as glory turns to uncertainty
Italian fans wonder what next
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An early Pauleta goal was enough to secure victory for Portugal against an Angola side which acquitted itself well on its World Cup debut in Cologne. |  |
Monday, 12, Jun 2006 01:55
Italian football is in a state of total bewilderment after the cataclysmic last few weeks.
Romans converged on the centre this week to welcome home their World Cup-winning heroes, with aerobatics and firework displays leaving the team in no doubt about the scale of the country's gratitude.
And today we hear that Italy are officially - according to Fifa's latest method of calculating world rankings at any rate - the second best team in the world, just behind Brazil no less.
It should be such a happy time, but there is the dank cloud of corruption hanging over the country.
Italian coach Marcello Lippi has decided to move on to pastures new, Juventus coach Fabio Capello has already gone and his entire former team appear to be dusting off their passports for another trip abroad.
So all in all Italians don't know whether to be deeply proud or deeply angry. And even if they did then where that anger or pride should be directed remains distinctly unclear.
There's a sense that the punishments for alleged match-fixing set to be dished out at a sports tribunal may be lessened because of the euphoria surrounding the World Cup success, but even so it is hard to see Italian club football escaping unscathed from its latest scandal.
The Italian media has been left wondering quite who is involved in the corruption, with new allegations of individuals being involved emerging all the time, and the finger of blame has been pointed at almost every part of the sport's set-up.
No doubt 2006 will be remembered as a definitive year for Italian football, but whether the lasting taste is a bitter or sweet one, or somewhere between the two, remains to be seen.
Martin Ashplant