Serie A title hopefuls Napoli will be deducted two points after defenders Paolo Cannavaro and Gianluca Grava were handed six-month bans for failing to report match-fixing, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has confirmed.

Italy’s Euro 2012 plans are in danger of being derailed by outside forces as a betting scandal clouded coach Cesare Prandelli’s announcement of his squad for the tournament.

Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has defended his decision to include Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci in his Euro 2012 squad.

Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci was today included in Italy’s final Euro 2012 squad despite being mentioned in the latest match-fixing investigation to engulf the country.

Typically they feature dawn raids and search warrants; obscure provincial prosecutors with snappy wardrobes and an eye for publicity; pictures of sheepish young men emerging from police stations; extracts from mobile phone taps selectively leaked to the papers; condemnation and summary convictions; and then a five-year appeal process during which it emerges that everyone was doing it but the accused had the misfortune or the stupidity to be caught.

AC Milan striker Antonio Cassano yesterday moved a step closer towards resuming his playing career after a positive meeting with a panel of medical experts.

Atalanta defender Andrea Masiello has been arrested today in connection with a match-fixing probe in Italy.

Palermo today sacked coach Devis Mangia after less than four months in charge.

ON Tuesday evening in the Aviva, a couple of us were toying with the idea of writing up our match reports before the game kicked-off, just to see if second-guessing Trapattoni’s Ireland is as easy as many folk think.

THIS was the kind of night that could just give the meaningless end of season friendly a good name, as an Irish side which spent most of the 90 minutes defending as if for its very life, somehow ended up recording a memorable, if almost inexplicable, 2-0 win against Italy.

AC Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic has had his three-match ban reduced to two games on appeal.

AC Milan had Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent off as they were held to a shock draw at home to basement boys Bari at the San Siro.

AC Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo has been ruled out for six weeks after suffering knee ligament damage.

AC Milan maintained their four-point lead at the top of Serie A thanks to a 2-0 win over Cesena at the San Siro this evening.

Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero is confident his side will bounce back from their poor start to the year.

BARCELONA star Lionel Messi is set to spend up to three weeks on the sidelines with an ankle sprain.

A GLITTERING club career collecting trophies like a schoolboy gathers stamps breeds high standards in a man so it comes as no surprise that John O’Shea harbours great expectations as Ireland kick another campaign off.

MIDFIELDER Javier Mascherano headed to Barcelona from Liverpool yesterday with manager Roy Hodgson blasting his selfish attitude.

Italy have dropped Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi from their 23-man World Cup squad.

Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu has been banned for nine months after failing an anti-doping test in January.

FOUR months after Thierry Henry’s ‘Hand of Gaul’ ended Ireland’s World Cup dreams, France return to international action against Spain tonight (8pm) with a recall for another enfant terrible.

FIORENTINA striker Adrian Mutu is “worried but optimistic” following the announcement of his positive drug test, according to his agent.

Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu has tested positive for a banned substance, the Italian Olympic Committee have announced.

Stefano Okaka’s agent believes the Roma striker could be on his way to Fulham by the end of the week.

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI says Ireland’s World Cup play-off against France will be like a cup final and will require more from his team than they have managed to produce in the qualification campaign.

WITH his Italian side top of Group 8, and needing just one point from their last two games to secure qualification for next year’s World Cup finals, you would think Marcello Lippi would be full of the joys of life right now. You would be wrong.

Massimo Donati has today left Celtic and signed for Serie A side Bari.

Celtic midfielder Landry N’Guemo returned from suspension for the Clydesdale Bank Premier League clash with Hibernian at Easter Road.

Stephen McManus returns to the Celtic squad for the SPL clash with Hibernian at Easter Road on Sunday.

Celtic midfielder Massimo Donati is poised to return to Italy after Bari tonight announced they are on the brink of signing him.

JOSE MOURINHO’S ability to create controversy shows no signs of diminishing.

NO Stephen Ireland in the latest squad, surprise, surprise, but hopes are rising that Steven Reid will be able to play a role in Ireland’s World Cup run-in.

Bulgaria 1 Republic of Ireland 1

NOBODY involved in Irish football, and least of all Giovanni Trapattoni, will underestimate the loss of Kevin Doyle for tonight’s World Cup qualifier in Bulgaria.

BEST moment from Bari? Ireland’s equalising goal certainly, but running it close in the precious memory stakes was a lovely little cameo I’d witnessed earlier on the afternoon of the game.

Giovanni Trapattoni left Bari with his reputation enhanced as Marcello Lippi was left licking his wounds.

AH, football. It really is the global game. The last thing you might expect when stumbling bleary-eyed into a hotel reception in the Balkans first thing in the morning is to be given a blow-by-blow account of Cork City’s home win over Bray Wanderers the night before.

IT would have been interesting to see the reception afforded to Marcello Lippi in Bari on Wednesday night had Italy failed to return from Montenegro with all three points in tow.

ITALIAN World Cup winner and former U21 coach Marco Tardelli has confirmed he will be assistant to new Ireland manager, Giovanni Trapattoni.

Fans of six Serie A clubs have been banned from travelling to their respective away games on November 24-25 in the wake of Sunday’s football-related violence.

POLICE AGGRESSION made a tense situation “catch fire” at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, according to former referee Anders Frisk.

SCOTLAND’S Euro 2008 qualification hopes suffered a blow as they lost to two Luca Toni goals as Italy won 2-0 in Bari.

Celtic and Scotland were kept waiting last night after a meeting between Italian Football League representatives and state police officials ended without any announcement on whether stadiums in the country would be reopened.