Iberian leagues bucking the trend

WITH the Italian, French and English leagues looking increasingly like a one-horse race, it’s refreshing to see that the competition elsewhere is hotting up.

Five points separate first from fifth in both Spain and Portugal, and it's notable that smaller clubs such as Braga and Nacional, the team from Madeira, are setting the pace in Portugal, while three of the top five in Spain are also outsiders.

Benfica's game at Porto on Saturday night had been billed as the Dutch derby, with Ronald Koeman now managing the team from Lisbon, while Co Adrianse is in charge at Porto. Adrianse has never beaten Koeman, and so it proved again, as Porto lost 2-0 in front of a capacity 55,000 crowd.

It was a particularly damaging defeat; not only was it Benfica's first away win against Porto for 14 years, knocking them off the top of table, but it also confirmed the home team's defensive weaknesses.

As the match drew to a close, the North Stand was full of Porto fans waving white handkerchiefs. The Portuguese are renowned for their stoicism in adversity, but Adrianse would be wrong to interpret this as a sympathetic gesture.

However, it is hardly fair that he should take all the blame. Porto are on their fourth manager since Jose Mourinho's departure in June 2004.

In that time, the defence and midfield have been ripped to pieces: Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho following Mourinho to Chelsea, Costinha and Maniche going to

Dinamo Moscow and Nuno Valente moving to Everton.

Their most promising young striker, Carlos Alberto, was also sold to Brazilian club Corinthians.

The question supporters are asking is what's been done with all the transfer money, especially as their handsome new stadium was paid for out of public funds. The club received transfer fees that should have made Porto unassailable in domestic football and a strong contender in Europe. Instead they are struggling to compete.

Meanwhile, back in Italy the main excitement apart from World Cup qualification has been off the pitch.

First, Fiat marketing director and prominent Juventus fan Lapo Elkann was discovered near death after apparently overdosing on cocaine-based drugs.

The ambulance service had been alerted by a young Brazilian lady who had been staying the night in his apartment.

Elkann, as regular readers may recall, recently made a statement hastily denied describing Alessandro Del Piero as a luxury player who was no longer worth his place in the Juventus side. Del Piero, to his credit, responded by saying nothing and promptly returned to the side, scoring a hatful of goals, culminating in a sensational winner worthy of Maradona against Messina at the weekend.

The next sensation in a lively week was the strange delay in Adriano's return to Italy from Brazil. Others Brazilian stars, such as Cafu and Emerson, had returned within hours, it was noted.

Whole pages of the football papers were devoted to detailed analysis of airline timetables to show that the Inter striker could and should have flown back sooner. Juventus manager Fabio Capello pointedly observed that he had been told it was very sunny in Brazil at this time of year.

Conclusion: the rift between Adriano, the World's Most Wanted Player, and Inter manager Roberto Mancini was turning into a chasm.

In Adriano's defence, it should perhaps be mentioned that, unlike every other Italian-based Brazilian, he played in both World Cup games, including the one in La Paz where the linesman needed oxygen at half-time.

The final story to hit the headlines concerns troubled Roma player Antonio Cassano. Unlike Del Piero, whose triumphant return to form has vindicated Capello's decision to rest him, Cassano's relations with his employer Roma appear to have broken down completely.

Club representative Rosella Sensi issued a statement on Saturday declaring: "We have made our proposal and there has been no response. For me negotiations are at an end. I have no intention of meeting Cassano or his agent again."

Cassano is currently injured, and it's possible he may return and play for the club the deal on offer is said to be a five-year contract worth €3.2m a season, which is more than any other Roma player except Francesco Totti.

The suspicion is that his future is at one of the big three northern clubs, with the obvious favourite being Juventus, with the man who brought him to Roma, the master of motivation Fabio Capello.

Even if Capello does keep on dropping hints that what he really wants to do is follow Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford