Whatever you think of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, the world needs whistleblowers and leakers.

There were three veterans of Italy’s 2006 World Cup triumph missing when the team met up at the Coverciano training centre in Florence yesterday to prepare for matches against Spain and Germany.

Conventional wisdom says that France has by far the weakest league of Europe’s Big Five, and looking at the Ligue 1 table, you can see why.

Italy has a history of teenage defensive diamonds, and Milan’s goalkeeper, 16-year-old Gianluigi Donnarumma, four months on from his debut, might be the best find yet

No one likes a show-off. You either love them or hate them.

Rule one of Italian football is that whenever Italy are due to compete in a major tournament, a big scandal will break in the previous six months.

The most significant football event of the year may have been a meeting in Shanghai last week.