ON THIS DAY

Just five days after celebrating Italy’s defeat of France in the World Cup Final Italian football was brought back down to earth when the Italian FA announced the punishments after an investigation into a major match-fixing scandal. Known as the Calciopoli scandal it involved bribing of referees and match fixing in Italian football in 2004/05 and 2005/06. The worst punishment handed down to the main five clubs involved was suffered by Juventus. They were stripped of the Italian championship titles they had won in 2004/05 and 2005/06 and were relegated to Serie B for 2006/07 with an additional 30 point deduction for 2006/07 although that was later reduced to 9 points on appeal. It was also announced that Fiorentina and Lazio were to be relegated to Serie B although that punishment was overturned on appeal with those two clubs plus AC Milan and Reginna ending up with points deductions/fines/ground closures. 15 th July

The short-lived ‘football war’ started when the El Salvador army attacked Honduras two weeks after the two countries had played a bad-tempered play off match to decide who would progress to the 1970 World Cup Finals in Mexico. El Savador had won the football match and were winning the war until a cease-fire was called.