Serie A remains a two-horse race

Meanwhile, Maradona loses fight over back taxes; doping inquiry sentences doctor

Juventus and AC Milan remain neck and neck at the top of Italy's Serie A after they both recorded precious victories.
Alessandro Del Piero scored twice - a cheeky back-heel and a penalty - and Emerson grabbed the other goal as Juve defeated lowly Siena 3-0, while Kaka netted a 74th-minute winner for title-holder AC Milan in its scrappy 1-0 win against local rival Inter Milan at the San Siro. It was Kaka's fifth goal of the season.
Juve and AC Milan have 57 points from their 26 matches played, 13 more than third-placed Sampdoria, which won 1-0 at Brescia. Defeat for Inter, its first in the league this season, left it in fourth place on 43 points.
Juventus coach Fabio Capello was delighted to see his team react positively after its 1-0 Champions League defeat away to Real Madrid. Palermo improved its chances of qualifying for next season's Champions League with a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Roma, courtesy of second-half goals from Marco Brienza and Luca Toni.
The Sicilians' eighth home victory left the team in sixth place, level on 42 points with Udinese, which drew 2-2 at Fiorentina.
Bottom club Atalanta, which already look doomed, came from behind three times to earn a 3-3 draw away to Cagliari, while Lazio eased its relegation fears with a 2-0 home win against struggling Parma.
In other matches, Lecce and Reggina both sneaked 1-0 wins at home to Messina and Chievo, respectively, and Livorno drew 0-0 away to Bologna.
In Turin, Juve's Czech midfielder, Pavel Nedved, was ruled out after being knocked unconscious in Madrid, while French striker David Trezeguet failed to recover from the virus that forced him to miss the game in Spain.
Manuele Blasi came in for Nedved, and Uruguayan forward Marcelo Zalayeta replaced Trezeguet. And, despite missing two key players, Juventus cruised to a 3-0 win over Siena to collect three crucial points.
The Milan derby was a rather dull affair and rarely lived up to its billing. The decisive goal, which arrived 16 minutes from time, was a little harsh on Inter. Clarence Seedorf's left-wing corner was headed out by Ivan Cordoba, but only as far as Gattuso, whose shot from the edge of the box was turned in by the instinctive Kaka.
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Off the field, Italian courtrooms seem to be making the most soccer headlines. This time it was the turn of none other than the hero of Naples. As if Diego Maradona didn't have enough to worry about, he now has a 30-million-euro ($48 million Cdn.) Italian tax bill to tackle.
The Argentine, who has been battling drug addiction, lost his fight in Italian courts last week against back taxes from his days of playing for Napoli more than a decade ago.
After arguing unsuccessfully that his old club should foot the bill, Maradona's lawyers tried to clear his name partially by arguing a procedural technicality: tax collectors did not notify Maradona of the back taxes until it was too late.
The legal strategy failed at Italy's high court, as it was proved that Maradona had been notified on two occasions. So, the sentence was definitive.
Maradona was an enormous celebrity when he lived in the southern port city of Naples, where adoring fans recently opened a museum to honour the man who led their team to two Italian league titles, in 1987 and 1990.
However, Maradona's lawyers doubt that the Italian treasury will ever get a cent out of their client.
"They could confiscate what he has ... But he does not have anything in Italy," noted one lawyer. "The ruling was symbolic."
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Meanwhile, in another high-profile scandal, Giuseppe Casalbore, president of the inquiry that has been investigating allegations of doping at the Italian champions, claimed that banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietine) was prescribed and distributed to certain Juventus players.
The club doctor at the centre of the controversy, Riccardo Agricola, was sentenced to a year and 10 months in prison and fined for sporting fraud in November last year.
"The doctor succeeded in reinforcing in a fraudulent manner the performances of players in competitions in which they were involved," said Casalbore last week.
However, Casalbore said he believes that Agricola "could not have purchased EPO on his own and could not have acted without prior approval from his superiors."
Agricola's lawyers, Luigi Chiappero and Emiliana Olivieri, hit back at the claims.
"He did not use these things to obtain an improvement influencing the destiny of results in these competitions, but he always cared for his athletes according to the regulations of sports medicine," the lawyers said.
"There is no direct proof, as admitted by the judge himself, that he had distributed EPO."
Franco Carraro, president of the Italian soccer federation (FIGC), has called for an inquiry into the affair along with his counterpart at the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), Gianni Petrucci, to investigate the findings of the court.
The six-year judicial inquiry into doping at Juventus came to an end in November last year when Agricola was found guilty of giving players performance-enhancing drugs between 1994 and 1998. During that period Juventus won three Italian league titles and the European Cup.
The judicial inquiry was prompted by Lecce coach Zdenek Zeman, who, while in charge at Roma, accused Juventus of giving drugs to its players to speed up muscle growth.
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And in Spain, Claudio Ranieri, who was sacked as Valencia coach last Friday just eight months into his second spell in charge, said he takes full responsibility for his failure to get the best out of the Spanish champions.
"I have always tried to create a group of players that battle hard and work together, but this time I couldn't do it," the 53-year-old Italian told reporters after his dismissal.
"I accept complete responsibility, because the team is a reflection of the character of the coach, and this time I couldn't achieve that." Ranieri was fired after his side's shock elimination from the UEFA Cup by Steaua Bucharest, when they let slip a 2-0 first-leg lead and lost on penalties.
He was already under pressure because of Valencia's poor form in the Primera Liga, after a six-game winless run had dropped them to sixth place in the 20-team standings.
Ranieri, who signed a three-year contract last June after being sacked as Chelsea coach, added that Valencia's two Spanish league titles and UEFA Cup success under his predecessor, Rafa Benitez, had created unrealistic expectations.

And over in Germany, ticket orders for the 2006 World Cup have passed the two-million mark, organizers said last Thursday.
As of early Thursday, 320,000 separate applications had been received for a total of 2.2-million tickets.
"Some matches are overbooked, the final in particular, but we still have tickets for many of the group matches," said organizing-committee vice-president Horst R. Schmidt.
Only 812,000 tickets are up for grabs in the first sales window, which opened on February 1 and runs until March 31. Applications received will go into a draw on April 15, with the order in which they are made making no difference.
Fans can apply for a maximum of 28 higher-priced tickets, up to four tickets per match for up to seven matches. For the cheapest-category tickets, the maximum is two tickets for up to three matches.
Host Germany is, as yet, the only team guaranteed a place in the 32-team event.

Publication Date: 2005-03-06
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4982