Italy

Italian Football League president Maurizio Beretta has labelled the mooted Serie A player strike as an “insensitive” act amid the country’s wider economic problems.

Atalanta is set to start the new Serie A season with a seven-point deduction for its part in the latest match-fixing scandal to hit Italian football, while league officials have also been threatened with the prospect of a player strike.

Serie A’s 20 clubs have finally reached an agreement to settle the long-running dispute about the distribution of media-rights income in Italian football.

Judge Patrizio Gattari of the civil tribunal court of Milan will rule today on the request of Serie A club Juventus for an injunction to block the distribution of around Eur200 million of media rights income among the 20 Serie A clubs.

The Italian government has announced that fans in Serie A will need to carry a supporter identity card to buy home season tickets and follow their team away next season.

New FIFA vice-president Jim Boyce has urged English football executives to “move on” from the disappointment of missing out on hosting the 2018 World Cup.

Serie A will stage an emergency meeting this evening to discuss the backing given this weekend by the Italian government for the position of the country’s top five clubs in the long-running dispute over how to carve up television revenues earned last season.

RAI has snapped up the exclusive Italian broadcast rights to Euro 2012, UEFA announced on Thursday.

Puma will continue to be the official licensing partner for Ferrari-branded products and the official supplier of the marque’s Formula One team after the two parties announced a contract extension on Wednesday.

The Celtic League, the rugby union competition that features teams from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Italy, has signed up Rabobank as its new title sponsor.

Thomas Di Benedetto’s consortium has sealed a deal to take over AS Roma, subject to regulatory approval, the American businessman has confirmed.

The media rights to Italy’s top division, Lega Serie A, are likely to be put out to tender this summer, according to press reports.

American businessman Thomas DiBenedetto, who is set to lead a takeover of Serie A club AS Roma on Wednesday, has spoken of his goal of moving the Eternal City giant to a new stadium.

The head of Rome’s bid for the 2020 Olympics has claimed that Tokyo is set to withdraw from the race to host the Games after the devastating recent earthquake in Japan.

The 2011 Giro d’Italia was launched yesterday at Soho's Bar Italia in London. British cyclist Mark Cavendish, who confirmed this year's event will be the first of three Grand Tours he will ride in 2011, was in attendance as special guest.

Fallen Italian giant Juventus has posted a big net loss of Eur39.5 million for the first half of the 2010-11 season.

The German Bundesliga has been rewarded for its clubs’ performances in Europe by snatching a UEFA Champions League place off Italy’s Serie A in 2012-13, according to the German Football League (DFL).

Under-pressure Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has vowed that his government will do “its utmost” to help Rome win the right to host the 2020 Olympics.