Italy’s unemployed footballers are being kept up to speed

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.

Italian football has a way of looking after those scores of professionals without a job as July turns into August.

For 20 years the Italian Footballers' Association (AIC), effectively a trade union for players, has run pre-season training camps for out-of-contract players.