Ireland look on at Italy’s Saipan

Saipan seemed both very close and very far away yesterday.

But 10 years on from the Roy Keane debacle, this time the firestorm was raging at the Italian training camp in Coverciano, little more than 50 miles from the Ireland’s pre-Euros base here in Montecatini.

The tremors were nevertheless still felt at the Stadia Comunale A Benedetti, where the Italian media turned up in force to get Giovanni Trapattoni’s take on the latest sensational developments in yet another Italian match-fixing scandal, a saga made all the more spicy in the context by the fact that Ireland and Italy will shortly do battle in the European Championship finals.

“It is a devastating story,” Trapattoni said. “If the magistrates are doing something, it is because there is some truth in this. I, who have travelled abroad for some time, must say that we give an ugly image of our football. As an Italian, the first feeling is that we are mocked abroad, we are always linked to illicit dealings and are considered mafia members. This only damages us.”

Later, when speaking with Irish journalists, Trapattoni was at pains to make a distinction between Italian football people in general and those he regards as rotten apples.

“I am very disappointed because some times in Italy we still make these type of mistakes,” he said. “We keep repeating them. Now we have this delicate situation and we wait what happens with the magistrate. I hope it’s only two or three or four people and not 30.”

Trapattoni expressed particular sympathy for his old friend and now rival manager, Cesare Prandelli who, through no fault of his own, must try to prepare his squad for the Euros in the middle of a scandal which has reached right into the heart of the national camp.

“He was my player, he was fantastic as a player and as a man,” he said.

Trapattoni also referred to the fact that, some years ago, Prandelli suffered the tragedy of the death of his wife. “He already had this personal, family situation,” he said sadly. “He’s a wonderful person and I’m sure he will get his team through this.”

Meanwhile, the Irish had their own somewhat more routine issues to attend to. Out on the training pitch, the majority of the squad were busily engaged in a match in one half while, in the other, injury worries Shay Given and John O’Shea continued with their personal rehabilitation, the Waterford man doing solo work with the ball and running lengths alongside physio Ciaran Murray.

Rather more worryingly, on the face of it, Shay Given was doing practice kicks the width of the pitch using only his left foot and, when he was finished, retired to the dug-out where ice was applied to his troublesome right knee.

Yet, Trapattoni afterwards continued to express confidence that the duo are well on the road to recovery, though both will again sit out tonight’s warm-up game against a Tuscan selection. Having also missed out on the friendly against Bosnia in Dublin last Saturday, the likes of Stephen Hunt, Paul Green, Simon Cox and Kevin Foley are all set to start in what will be a heavily rotated Irish line-up.