Just a few short weeks ago — which now feels more like many long years, — Ireland were sitting pretty and serene in their Montecatini base in Tuscany while no more than 30 miles away at their Coverciano training camp, Italy’s footballers were waking up to dawn raids, shock-horror headlines and all the trappings of another explosive calcio scandal.

Former Italy coach Marcello Lippi is confident the national team will be able to focus on football and block out the match-fixing controversy when they travel to the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine.

Italian football president Giancarlo Abete has rejected the suggestion that football in Italy should be suspended for up to three years in a order to weed out match-fixing from the game.

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.

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.

Saipan seemed both very close and very far away yesterday.

Giovanni Trapattoni played the diplomat as he and his Republic of Ireland players were honoured at a civic reception in Montecatini this evening.

Italy host Luxembourg in a Euro 2012 warm-up tomorrow in Parma with the country gripped by a new match-fixing scandal.

Republic of Ireland coach Giovanni Trapattoni has described the latest match-fixing scandal to hit Italy as "devastating" and believes it further tarnishes the image of Italian football.

Lazio captain Stefano Mauri and former Genoa midfielder Omar Milanetto have been arrested by police in connection with a match-fixing probe in Italy.

Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli has brushed aside ongoing rumours he will leave the Etihad Stadium this summer.

IT’S down to the English FA to make the final decision on any prospective pre-Euro 2012 friendly with Ireland, according to Giovanni Trapattoni.

GIOVANNI TRAPATTONI and Marco Tardelli will travel to Poland this week to assess Ireland’s base camp options for the European Championship finals next summer.

MUCH like love and marriage, Italian football and match-fixing seem to go together like a horse and carriage.

The Italian Football Federation are awaiting further information regarding their Euro 2012 qualifier against Northern Ireland following the bomb blast in Derry this morning.

Fabio Cannavaro is to join the Italy squad in Coverciano as originally planned on Sunday despite being under the cloud of drug test controversy.

Juventus midfielder Claudio Marchisio will miss Italy’s World Cup qualifiers against the Republic of Ireland and Cyprus through injury.

EVERTON manager David Moyes believes both his side and tonight’s opponents Fiorentina represent the future of the Champions League.

Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro is glad to be at the Azzurri’s training base and away from the violent scenes which have left him “angry and upset” with the state of the national game.

MIDFIELDER Gianluca Zambrotta could miss Italy’s World Cup opener against Ghana on June 12 with a muscle strain.

AS the new European season approaches, footballers without a club know it is far better to be put through your paces by a bellowing coach than be sat at home hoping for the phone to ring.

ALESSANDRO NESTA has withdrawn from Italy’s squad for Saturday’s World Cup qualifier with Scotland at the San Siro.

FILIPPO INZAGHI is the notable omission from the Italy squad named for Euro 2004 by Giovanni Trapattoni yesterday.

Filippo Inzaghi is the notable omission from the Italy squad named for Euro 2004 by Giovanni Trapattoni today.

Giovanni Trapattoni has named Italy's 23-man World Cup squad, and as expected there is no place for Roberto Baggio.