Quick News Roundup Ahead of Today’s Matches

By: Martha | April 18th, 2007

Lounging Deco I don’t even want to think about how unproductive I’m going to be today — pray with me that no work crises erupt doing the Inter-Roma game.

•The Deco-to-Inter rumor is heating up again, with zillions of outlets reporting Moratti has already made Barca an offer of €6 million for his services. There is, however, some competition, with Chelsea allegedly after the little playmaker, and Barca, too, considering an offer that would keep him at the club through 2010.

•Ok, so Italy didn’t get Euro 2012. There is still some good news for Italians today — the Azzurri are back at the top of FIFA’s World Rankings. Woo hoo! The 2-0 win over Scotland was enough to vault Italy over Argentina, back into into the number one spot, while Holland, Portugal and Spain all rose a single spot in the rankings. The only teams to fall were the Czech Republic (from nine to 10) and England, who crashed from sixth to eighth. (That’s what drawing with Israel will do to you.)

•According to Quotidiano Nazionale, former Juve sporting director Luciano Moggi — AKA the human face of Calciopoli — is going to informally join Milan as a transfer market adviser. Um … ok. So Milan are, what, thinking things are going too well these days, or something? Why on earth would you do something like this and just blatantly invite increased scrutiny?

•Cristiano Lucarelli is still leaving Livorno, which should make his “I am the image of a faithful footballer” talk in London later this month interesting. After the team were booed off the pitch on Sunday by fans apparently suspecting they were giving less than full effort, Lucarelli flipped out and concluded “it’s time to break the link with Livorno.” While this is obviously sad for Lucarelli and the club, I find myself more interested in the allegation that the team are throwing matches — anyone got any details for us?

•Speaking of, word on the street is that, despite just signing a long-term contract with Livorno, keeper Marco Amelia might be headed to Juventus this summer as a replacement for the always-rumored-to-be-leaving Gigi Buffon. According to one report, a Juve doctor was with Amelia yesterday when he underwent a knee scan — which just happened to take place in Turin. If that really happened? Damn, those are some balls Juve have. Talk about shady.