Italian football again in the eye of a storm

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.

Miss one Italian scandal and you can be quite confident there will be another along shortly. But the best of them coincide with major tournaments.

In 1982 Paolo Rossi was brought back into the side for the World Cup after serving two years of a three-year ban for the betting scandal known as Totonero. His hat-trick knocked out Brazil in the quarter-finals; he then scored two in the semi-final against Poland and the opening goal in the 3-1 final win against West Germany.