4th of July Ticker: Another Italy scandal, Liverpool's new left back and Newcastle's American takeover denied
Hello folks. Hope your enjoying your holiday. For those of you looking for a soccer fix, here are a few stories to tide you over:
Italian players accused of match-fixing
From the "Not again" department comes word out of Rome that five players from Atalanta and Livorno have been charged with match-fixing. Just two years after the scandal that saw several of Italy's biggest clubs charged, a new scandal looks set to Tarnish Serie A.
Not many details are available yet, but Atalanta's Gianpaolo Bellini and former Livorno captain David Balleri are accused of trying to fix the results of both matches between the teams last Serie A season (Livorno was relegated after the season).
Newcastle denies sale reports
Newcastle United has denied rumors that an American private equity fund was preparing to buy the club.
InterMedia Partners, a New York-based businsess, is reportedly lining up a bid for the club, but a Newcastle spokesman called the reports "complete nonsense."
Who exactly is InterMedia Partners? You've got me on that one but one of their recent acquisitions was the rights to Soul Train. Could there be two more different acquisitions than Soul Train and Newcastle United? I don't even have a joke for that, but I'm sure someone can come up with one.
Liverpool signs Dossena
Still having nightmares about John Arne Riise's own goal in the Champions League? You can rest assured that the Riise era is officially over after Liverpool signed Italian left back Andrea Dossena from Udinese. Dossena's signing comes on the heels of Liverpool adding Swiss right back Philipp Degan.
Call it a small consolation as the tug-of-war with Aston Villa over Gareth Barry continues.
Share your thoughts on these, and any other soccer stories, in the comments section below.
Ives Galarcep is an American soccer columnist for ESPNsoccernet.com and creator of SoccerByIves.net.
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Owen enjoys doing the hussle.
InterMedia was hoping that soultrain would inspire the players to actually hussle this season and perform to their expectations.
Posted by: mikeK | July 04, 2008 at 01:30 PM
Hey Ives, hope you have a fantastic vacation you have definitely earned it. You do great work on this blog and the soccer fans of America appreciate it. Oh yeah, I like your new logo on the right column. Classy!
Posted by: Reed | July 04, 2008 at 02:02 PM
Another reason I hate Serie A
Posted by: Scott A | July 04, 2008 at 02:47 PM
not only is serie a boring, but its also rigged. great.
Posted by: john | July 04, 2008 at 02:55 PM
And has tracks running around the stadia so you can't see the crowd. A crowd which will kill police officers once in a while
Posted by: Scott A | July 04, 2008 at 02:59 PM
Rise has already agreed terms with ROMA (a while back)
Posted by: North End | July 04, 2008 at 03:34 PM
NBA=Serie A
and what about Amoebi?
Posted by: dave from newcastle | July 04, 2008 at 03:42 PM
This was the first season I watched a lot of Serie A games and i was amazed by the poor quality of the stadiums. Some of them are what I would expect from a Third World country. Even the Argentina stadiums looked better.
Posted by: groovester | July 04, 2008 at 04:48 PM
people people people.... it accused... not guilty.... get over it...
its a couple of players, not the league.... hardly something to blame the league over... if you started on every scandal in other leagues you could make them out to be bad as well...
Posted by: brett | July 04, 2008 at 06:17 PM
I disagree brett. The pattern of scandals in Serie A says something about the league as a whole. And if you compared scandals in all leagues Serie A would come out looking the worst.
Posted by: Scott A | July 04, 2008 at 06:19 PM
Brett,
I wish what you claimed were true but its not. Bribery and match fixing have been widespread and accepted in Italian soccer for years (read "The Miracle of Castel di Sangro" last two chapters to get the idea).
Posted by: HIncha Tim | July 04, 2008 at 07:23 PM
I like the new logo Ives!
Posted by: Joe Quake | July 04, 2008 at 11:08 PM
this is what? The seventh match fixing scandal in twenty years?
Posted by: northzax | July 04, 2008 at 11:12 PM
This is why you really drop the hammer, not simply dock points or relegate a club for a single year, when they are in any way connected with match fixing.
The message seems to me to be that match fixing is worth the risks to those involved.
Posted by: Justin O | July 05, 2008 at 05:31 AM
each scandal is nothing more then just a few people from each party (for the most part), and the fans and players end up paying for it... i agree with Justin, that harsher things need to happen to the people involved... too often the players (non-involved players) and fans are the ones who suffer from the incident...
Posted by: brett | July 05, 2008 at 10:19 AM
With the financial problems facing Newcastle's sponsor Northern Rock, InterMedia Partners is hoping to replace them with Northern Soul.
Posted by: chupacabra | July 05, 2008 at 10:34 AM