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.