After a season marred by a fake-passport scandal, a match-fixing case, multiple doping cases and racist outbursts at stadiums, Italy is hoping for a return to normalcy.

FAVORITES

Big-spending Juve rebuilds after Zidane

1. JUVENTUS. The $66.2 million Juve got for Zinedine Zidane doesnÆt come close to covering the $115 million it shelled out for goalie Gianluigi Buffon, French defender Lilian Thuram and Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved. The emergence of young French striker David Trezeguet allowed Juve to sell Pippo Inzaghi to AC Milan.

2. ROMA. President Franco SensiÆs $34 million gamble on 32-year-old Gabriel Batistuta (10 goals in his first 10 games) paid off in RomaÆs first title since 1984. Pivotal for RomaÆs was its depth. It will be tested this season in the Champions League, where Italian clubs have not done well the last two seasons.

3. AC MILAN. President Silvio Berlusconi was elected Italian prime minister in May, but he remains committed to rebuilding Milan. Highly regarded Turk Fetih Terim was brought in as coach. Portuguese midfielder Jorge Costa came with Terim from Fiorentina. Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko scored 48 goals in his first two years in Italy.

4. LAZIO. The RomansÆ problems continue. President Sergio Cragnotti is looking for new investors, and LazioÆs stock dropped 3.45 percent the day after it fell to FC Copenhagen, 2-1, in the first leg of their Champions League qualifying series.

5. INTER MILAN. Argentine Hector Cuper, who led Valencia to consecutive Champions League finals, has been brought in to turn around underperforming Inter. Ronaldo, who missed most of the last two seasons with a knee injury, is making a comeback.

TRANSFERS

Goalkeepers on parade

Italy prizes its goalkeepers.

Dino Zoff is a national hero after leading Italy to the 1982 World Cup title at 40.

Juventus thought so much of 23-year-old Gianluigi Buffon that it paid Parma $45.9 million for the keeper, shattering the world-record transfer fee for a goalie.

BuffonÆs transfer and that of Francesco Toldo, his archrival for the starting job on ItalyÆs national team, touched off a chain reaction of goalie transfers. Six of the nine top finishers last year in Serie A will have new starting goalies this season.

The big deal was BuffonÆs move to Juventus, which was unhappy with inconsistent Edwin Van der Sar, who has since moved to English club Fulham.

Buffon, who debuted for Parma at 18, will earn almost $5 million a year at Juventus. He has won the Italian national team starting job from Toldo, who was outstanding at Euro 2000.

Toldo, who starred at Fiorentina, agreed on a move to Spanish club Barcelona, but negotiations collapsed suddenly. He also rejected a transfer to Parma to replace Buffon and eventually signed with Inter Milan.

Inter turned around and sold 21-year-old Sebastien Frey to Parma.

Champion Roma also was looking for a new keeper and signed 20-year-old Ivan Pelizzoli from Atalanta to succeed aging Francesco Antonioli.

Atalanta in turn signed Massimo Taibi, a bust at Manchester United, from Reggina.

Giuseppe Taglialatela inherits the starting job at Fiorentina.

PASSPORT SCANDAL

FIGC comes down hard on players

It all began simply enough, with a passport check.

Italian club Udinese was traveling to Poland for a first-round UEFA Cup match, and the Polish immigration inspector became suspicious with the signatures on the Portuguese passports several Brazilian players were carrying.

Sure enough, they were fake.

The random check touched a passport scandal that rocked Italian soccer.

Six Serie A teams (Roma, Lazio, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Udinese and relegated Vicenza) and one Serie B team (Sampdoria) were implicated in cases involving players carrying fake passports from European countries to get around limits on non-European Union players (three on the field).

The Italian League (FIGC) came down hard.

In the most publicized case, LazioÆs Argentine star Juan Sebastian Veron, since transferred to Manchester United, was cleared of charges that he acquired an Italian passport because of an Italian ancestor who did not exist, but 13 other players were suspended from playing in Italy for six months to a year.

The biggest name is Alvaro Recoba. Inter Milan is appealing the suspension of the Uruguayan striker until the end of the 2001-02 season.

Eight of the players were Brazilians, including AC Milan keeper Dida, also suspended until June 30, 2002.

Seven club officials also were banned.

Udinese transfer manager Gino Pozzo received the longest ban. He is out of work until June 30, 2003. Udinese, which saw four players suspended, was fined 3 billion lire ($1.34 million), the largest monetary punishment.

Seven other club officials fingered by FIGC prosecutor Carlo Porceddu were cleared, including Lazio president Sergio Cragnotti.

The irony: The Italian Olympic committee, which governs Italian sports, has since ruled restrictions on non-EU players is illegal.

by Soccer America Managing Editor Paul Kennedy