Fair Game?

Hmm, what am I doing here in the morning hour of 9am? Woke up n can't sleep anymore. It's the weekend again. Dad just came back from Moscow ystd n bought some really yummy chocolates from Russia. Hehe, I love choclates...

Was just surfing youtube.com, n I found all the videos of the theme songs of the European Championships n World Cups.

In World Cup 98, "Cup Of Life" by Ricky Martin


In Euro 2000, "Campione 2000" by E-Type


In World Cup 2002, "Boom" by Anastacia


In the recent World Cup 2006, "The Time of Our Lives" by IL DIVO & TONI BRAXTON


Another shocking news in the footballing world. The verdict has been out on the Italian Serie A match fixing scandal. All the 4 clubs involved were being severely punished.

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From soccernet.com
Juventus, Lazio, and Fiorentina have been relegated from Serie A as a result of the match-fixing scandal. AC Milan have avoided relegation, but will start next season with a 15-point deficit, and have had 44 points taken from their tally for the 2005-06 season. Juventus have been stripped of their Serie A titles for each of the last two seasons. They will start next campaign with a 30-point deficit. Fiorentina will start in Serie B with a 12-point deficit and Lazio a seven-point deficit.

The rulings mean that none of the four clubs will be allowed to play in Europe next season. In addition to the punishments handed to the clubs, a number of the individual directors were suspended.

Former Juventus general manager Luciano Moggi has been suspended from all football for five years. Adriano Galliani, who was AC Milan vice-president, has been suspended for one year. The four clubs will have up to three days to appeal to the Federal Court but a final verdict has to be announced before July 25, when the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) must give UEFA, Europe's football governing body, the list of teams that will compete in the continental club competitions in the 2006/07 campaign.

The scandal was uncovered as a result of a criminal investigation that was launched before the start of the 2004/05 campaign by the Naples prosecutors' office. Telephone conversations between Moggi and a referees supremo in charge of the appointments of officials during the 2004/05 season were tapped. Prosecutors based their probe on hundreds of bugged telephone calls between referee selectors, game officials and Moggi. At the close of trading on Milan's stock exchange on Friday, Lazio shares had dropped 9.68% to 0.28 euros while Juventus went down to 1.45 euros - a fall of 1.15%.

An estimated 500 Lazio fans protested outside Rome's Parco dei Principi hotel as Federal Appeal Commission president Cesare Ruperto read out the verdicts inside. More than 300 Fiorentina fans met up outside the Artemio Franchi stadium as a sign of protest but it was a different story in Turin with few Juventus supporters turning up at the club's headquarters in Via Galileo Ferraris.
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See, I've never been a fan of Italian football. I hate the way they dive, the way they fall on the slightest touch, n most of all, they cheat. This is a very good example. Is it in their genes? Or is it their culture? Even the clubs' presidents cheat, this says a lot about their integrity of the game. So what if they won the World Cup this year? I think they're simply a bunch of disgrace. Now that the big clubs are being relegated, I'm waiting to see how many of their players are willing to stick it with their team. Looks like the transfer market is going to be very interesting in the coming weeks.