fpb | Jul. 9th, 2006

From left to right, these are Italian Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri with a ball signed by all the Italy players; the temporary head of the Italian Football Federation; President Giorgio Napolitano with a national shirt with his name on it (I remember Nelson Mandela wearing one on the epic Rugby World Cup final in 1995); team captain Cannavaro; and team coach Lippi.

I guess these are the best that Italy can send to represent us right now, and except for the footballer I do not think much of them. Giorgio Napolitano is an old-time Communist who in 1956 voted to approve the murder of Hungary, and since then has been a cautious and scrupulous follower of the party line. In terms of quality he is decidedly not up to some of the most recent Presidents - the patriotic and avuncular Carlo Ciampi, who established an immediate relationship with the Italian public and was immensely popular; Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, the last of the Founding Fathers of 1946; and, looking back a couple of decades, the rocky and magnificent figure of Sandro Pertini, war hero, founding father and a man of utter integrity.

The government is worse. The only thing to be said for this assemblage of extremists, former Communists converted to capitalism, and disgusted Catholics trying to hold the ship together and getting insulted for their pains, is that they are not Berlusconi; and even so, the extremists among them are such a hideous and discredited crew that Berlusconi, who seemed dead and buried one month before the recent general election, came within a few thousand votes of winning just because he kept harping on his "Communist" opponents. The Italian public were subject to the worst of ghastly choices: between a government whose criminal incompetence has demonstrably impoverished and degraded the country, and a government that is no government at all, in whose majority are some of the most notorious America-haters, Church-haters and former and current terrorists in the country. As for football, the fact that the head of the Federation at a time when Italy seems about to win the World Cup is a temporary commissioner imposed by the courts after the whole high level of Italian football was deposed for corruption says all that should be said.

The World Cup victory of 1982 represented the end of a period of national depression and terrorist violence and a rise in national confidence. That ended badly - in the corrupt and destructive Craxi period and the rise of Berlusconi - but it is hard to see even a false dawn such as that today. The victory, if it happens, will be more in the nature of a cheerful Hollywood film during the Depression: we will sit there and watch, and for two hours we will be happy - and then Italy will go back to its miserable present and its uncertain future.

A thought that has been growing stronger and stronger in my mind as I watched this excellent World Cup is that it is becoming too hard to score. I have watched several excellent teams play beautifully, attack and defence, only to go whole matches without a goal abd having to play extra time or even penalties, because defenders have become too skilful. Even the best players have trouble even coming close to goal. I also have the impression that a lot of the goals that have been scored have come from surprise strikes from outside the box, before the defender could nullify the attack. I wonder whether there is a case for making a change to make life easier for attackers, in particular widening the goal a bit.