Perhaps it was Marco Materazzi who put it best. The Inter Milan and Italy defender, who became a household name to the non-footballing public after he was on the receiving end of Zinédine Zidane’s head-butt in the World Cup final, was asked what it would mean if AC Milan won the Champions League in Athens.

“As an Inter man, I can’t bring myself to support Milan against Liverpool,” he said. “And that’s why I hope that the best side does not win. I’ll be a Red for the night.

“That said, if Milan win, I think we can say that, between their Champions League and our Scudetto, we’ll be the world capital of football, at least next season.

“Plus, if you throw in [Italy’s victory in the World Cup in] Germany and that, between us and them, we supplied eight World Cup winners, well, that’s something to be proud of, especially after what we’ve been through. It shows that, whatever else may be rotten in Italian football, and last summer showed there was plenty, the football itself is healthy. And that’s something of which we can be proud.”

Indeed, if there is an encouraging thing to be taken from the 2006-07 campaign – not just for the Italian game, but for the sport as a whole – it is that the link between money, FA officials and club executives on the one hand and the players on the other is not as strong as people believed. Twelve months ago, Italian football was a shambles, a case-study in how to strangle the golden-egg laying goose.

The grounds, with a few exceptions, looked like something from Eastern Europe circa 1950. The TV contracts, while lucrative for the bigger clubs, were lopsided, with some Serie A teams earning 20 times as much as the minnows. With the exception of a few clubs who are bankrolled by wealthy owners (Exhibit A: Inter and Fiorentina), most teams were either in virtual administration due to crippling debts (Exhibit B: Roma, Lazio, Parma) or forced to run on a shoestring budget (Exhibit C: most other Serie A sides). And, at some clubs (Catania, above all) and in some cities, such as Rome, there were still fans and police who saw every game as an invitation to crack skulls.

And then there was the “Calciopoli” or match-fixing scandal. Italian football discovered that its worst fears were true. They had been living a lie for the past five years, perhaps more. The higher echelons of the Italian FA and its referee selectors were effectively puppets in the hands of Luciano Moggi, the Juventus general manager, who used a system of favours, patronage and intimidation to set up a network aimed at favouring his club and “friendly” teams that operated in their orbit.

The twin forces of the scandal – which resulted in Juventus’s relegation – and the enduring cash crunch meant that Serie A, which had fallen behind La Liga and the Barclays Premiership in terms of star power, lost more of its top players during the summer: from Gianluigi Buffon and Alessandro Del Piero, who were relegated with Juventus, to Gianluca Zambrotta, Andriy Shevchenko, Emerson and Fabio Cannavaro, who earned high-profile transfers, the star meter dipped precipitously.

Then came victory in the World Cup and, with it, the reminder that football is not played by FA officials, fans, cops or on balance sheets. Italy won the World Cup not because they necessarily had the best players but because they had enough good players who, with outstanding coaching, managed to raise their game at the right time. It proved to many that quality, professionalism and experience still matter.

In some ways, Milan’s season is a microcosm of Italy’s year. Ten months ago they were given an eight-point penalty for their role in the scandal. It was a minor role – an external consultant to the club had made phone calls to assistant referees in an attempt to curry favour – which is why Uefa only confirmed Milan’s participation in the Champions League on August 2, only seven days before they were due to meet Red Star Belgrade in the first leg of the third qualifying round.

Furthermore, Silvio Berlusconi, the Milan owner, said that he would only spend money to strengthen the side once he was sure that they were in the Champions League proper. In the end, all that Berlusconi could muster as a replacement for Shevchenko was Ricardo Oliveira, the Brazil striker whose injury record makes Darren Anderton look like Frank Lampard.

That may be why Milan limped through the first half of the season. Then came a 12-week stretch during which they lost only twice – in the Milan derby and to Manchester United at Old Trafford – to secure a place in the top four in Serie A while advancing to the Champions League final.

Carlo Ancelotti, the Milan manager, refuses to take credit, but the resurgence was partly the result of his planning. He effectively put the players through a second preseason training regime in November which cost them points in Serie A but allowed the veterans to reach April in good condition. That, coupled with the quality of the squad, is why Milan will contest Europe’s biggest prize, despite the myriad problems off the pitch. Much like Italy in the World Cup, they have been able to cast their worries aside to focus on the football. Which is what they are actually good at.

Published in Timesonline

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