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.

IT was 8pm when Judge Teresa Casoria finally delivered the verdict to a Naples courtroom crammed with reporters, TV crews, lawyers and policemen.

THE Italian press celebrated the end of a dark chapter in the country’s football history yesterday after the verdicts and jail sentences were handed down in Calciopoli.

Fabio Capello will unleash Wayne Rooney on Montenegro tonight confident the striker is in the right frame of mind for the finale to England’s Euro 2012 qualifying drive.

IF THERE are gods of football, justice, then on Sunday they were surely smiling down on Naples.

At the end of a turbulent few days in which Jose Mourinho has suggested he is being rounded upon, the Inter Milan coach last night delivered a scathing attack on the Italian game.

David Balleri, one of five players referred to the Italian football federation’s disciplinary commission on suspicion of match-fixing, says he feels “angered” by the accusations made against him.

Italy’s football federation have charged Juventus, former general manager Luciano Moggi and a number of match officials in the second part of investigations into the 2006 match-fixing scandal.

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon believes the Bianconeri can challenge for the Scudetto next season if they strengthen the squad in the summer.