6 The Guardian | Monday July 10 2006 World Cup final Italy v France

After the glory League of nations return allows Germany home to learn to fly flag with pride their fate

John Hooper Rome with anticipation and celebration, the sheer scale of the gathering on Berlin’s western edge could not fail to take the Many of the Italy players returning from breath away. If the Millennium Dome Berlin in triumph today will be doing so was visible from near space, this vast in the uneasy knowledge that their clubs complex of stages, tented villages, the still face possible disgrace and relegation stadium itself, must be visible from its — and that they themselves could soon be outer reaches. Presidential motorcades moving on to other sides. swept past, whole ant colonies of Fifa- Thirteen of the 23 Azzurri play for Marina Hyde approved guests processed into their teams caught up in the most far-reaching Berlin VIP areas but inside the sunken arena scandal to hit Italian football for almost the atmosphere was amplified by the quarter of a century. Today, as their plane personal nature of the flags and banners: touches down at a military airport on the At times this has seemed like a World “Grazie Lippi”, “Merci Zizou”, Mediterranean coast near Rome, judges at Cup of competing narratives. Players “Thanks Ghana”. a sporting tribunal in the capital will be have strutted and fretted, the story On Jesse Owens Allee, the road that pondering the outcome of a trial that lines of national teams have risen and winds round the stadium, Italian and could see four sides relegated and fallen, football romances have been French fans exchanged joking catcalls leading officials banned. overwritten by other football romances. before embracing each other in the spirit Most at risk are Juventus, several of It was only fitting that the final of the occasion. The manager of a sports whose most senior former executives are should pit perhaps the two strongest shop in Berlin had earlier admitted he accused of operating a vast match-fixing narratives against one another — the had run out of Zidane replica shirts ring. The prosecution wants the club rel- French as if backlit by their miraculously rather sooner than he might have liked egated to Serie C1, stripped of its last two resurgent captain and the Italians in the circumstances; yesterday they league championship titles and made to silhouetted against the backdrop of were being worn with Italian wigs, lei start next season with a points handicap. the scandal and tragedy raging back garlands in German colours, even If its demands are met in full, it could spell home in Serie A. beneath Polish flags worn as capes. financial ruin for Italy’s historically most That the dramas and fables should As a samba dance troupe duelled successful side. finally converge in Berlin’s Olympic with an oompah band, a group of Eng- But last night’s victory over France in stadium only magnified the resonance. land supporters passed by bearing a Germany will make it much more difficult The Germans’ decision not to demolish huge St George’s cross emblazoned with for the court to hand out stiff sentences, and rebuild the Olympiastadion have particularly to Juventus, who supplied made it a kind of palimpsest structure, several of the key players in the squad, where the stories of the past are still including Italy’s captain Fabio Cannavaro. legible through the modern reworkings That the dramas and fables On Friday Italy’s justice minister sug- and renovations. What happens here gested that getting as far as the final was becomes history. should converge in Berlin’s enough to merit an amnesty. Clemente Outside its stone walls yesterday, a Olympiastadion only Mastella said: “As a fan, let me say this — mass of humanity wished to knit itself is it fair that [Fabio] Cannavaro and into the tale. A constant stream of magnified the resonance [Alessandro] Del Piero and so many oth- people waited patiently to photograph ers should play in the third division after themselves in front of the statued everything they have done?” entrance to the arena where Jesse Three other clubs, Fiorentina, Lazio Owens won four gold medals in 1936 the words “Danke Deutschland”. Apart and Milan, all risk relegation to as under the baleful gaze of the Führer. from being arguably our most mannerly a result of the scandal in which it is If a football pitch has to be surrounded gesture of the tournament thus far, claimed officials could arrange for by an athletics track, this is the one the idea that this sight would have amenable referees and linesmen. The you want. been deemed anything other than a clubs, and 26 individuals who are accused, Even were one to be spirited into the mirage a few short weeks ago is all deny wrongdoing. middle of this throng having been in indicative of the extraordinarily Were Juventus or any of the other clubs seclusion for the past few weeks, it regenerative effect of this tournament to be relegated, it is likely some of their would be impossible not to know on the host nation. World Cup players would move else- immediately that this was the World To say the World Cup has allowed where. Last week there were reports of Cup final. Where other games and other Germany to love itself again would be scouts from leading clubs around the stadia in the tournament have hummed overly simplistic: that process has been world heading for Berlin specifically to a long one at whose difficulties we can court prospects in the Italian squad. largely only guess. But witnessing the As ’s players advanced manic euphoria that broke out in through the draw, calls for an amnesty Berlin’s streets after the host nation grew. But at the same time so did doubts beat Portugal on Saturday to be placed about whether scandal might not be good third in the tournament, it was hard not — or, indeed, essential — for the Azzurri. to feel an irresistible sea change has Their last World Cup win, in 1982, also taken place in this country over the past took place against a background of raging five weeks. controversy over alleged match-fixing. Yesterday 29-year-old engineer Otto Last week the minister responsible for Hensch, dressed in a German shirt, sport in the centre-left Rome government, accessorised with an Italian mohican Giovanna Melandri, dismissed the idea of wig and a French scarf, professed him- a pardon as “idiocy”. Even if the sports self overcome by it.“I never put up a tribunal opts for leniency, many of the flag before because it felt strange,” he accused officials, and even some players, explained in the shadow of the Nazi face problems arising from Italy’s crimi- statuary that still adorns the Olympia- nal justice system. Prosecutors in four stadion. “Now I have had one in my cities are investigating related aspects of window for three weeks. It is going the scandal. Cannavaro has been inter- to feel too empty if I take it down, so rogated in one of the prosecutors’ A French fan shows his support and I have decided I am going to keep it Italy supporters are silhouetted outside the Olympiastadion yesterday as fans inquiries. Gigi Buffon, Italy’s keeper, has enjoys the atmosphere before kick-off up for good.” from many nations converged on Berlin for the final Shaun Botterill/Getty Images formally been made a suspect in another.

Another great production from Germany.

We hope you enjoyed the 2006 FIFA World Cup™.

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