Fiorentina faces crisis

All Italian teams meet financial deadline

ROME (AP) -- While it's still possible any of them could be excluded from the upcoming season, eight top teams presented details regarding their finances to soccer authorities Monday evening, with Florence's struggling squad appealing for special conditions.

Fiorentina, a Champions League participant just two years ago, asked to be enrolled for the season with the stipulation that it would provide details of its finances on Tuesday, a day after the deadline, the news agency ANSA quoted one of the team's lawyers, Roberto Russo, as saying.

While recent Serie A champions AS Roma and Lazio met the Monday deadline without a worry, Fiorentina's situation went right down to the wire.

The other teams -- Serie B sides Genoa, Messina, Napoli, Palermo and Verona -- also met the deadline on Monday without any problems.

On Thursday, the financial authority of Italian soccer will decide the teams' fates for the approaching season.

Clubs throughout Italy and Europe have been hit with financial troubles all summer due to the rapid increases in player salaries they doled out over the past few years. In an effort to stay competitive with one another, several teams went beyond their budgetary limits.

Fiorentina's troubles began long before this summer.

The team has been in a downward spiral since selling off its longtime star Gabriel Batistuta of Argentina after the 1999-2000 season. A year later, it sold other mainstays of the 1990s, goalkeeper Francesco Toldo and Portuguese playmaker Manuel Rui Costa.

This past season, the team was relegated to Serie B after finishing near the bottom of the standings in Serie A. And many of its players have been playing for months without receiving all their compensation.

Most of the troubles have been linked to the team's owner, Vittorio Cecchi Gori, and his struggling film and entertainment businesses.

Sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport reported Monday that Cecchi Gori was offering up one of his favorite theaters, the Adriano cinema center in Rome, as security for a bank loan in order to have enough cash to display to league officials.

Team officials reached by telephone on Monday would not comment on any details.

In another financial-related development Monday, eight Serie A teams without television contracts asked for the Sept. 1 start of the season to be delayed for a month, ANSA reported.

Preseason hype hails Nakamura

TOKYO (Reuters) -- The Italian season has not even kicked off yet and already Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura is being hailed as a "genius" in some sections of the Japanese press.

Nakamura, who joined newly promoted Serie A club Reggina on July 4, played just 62 minutes in a pre-season event involving Juventus and Ittihad of Libya at the weekend, but it was enough to prompt one newspaper to call him "Reggina's Beckham."

"Playing in a free role, just like England international David Beckham, Nakamura showed glimpses of his genius," the Sankei Sports reported on Monday.

Reggina beat Ittihad 1-0 and drew 0-0 with Juventus before losing on penalties in back-to-back games lasting just 45 minutes each. Nevertheless, the Nikkan Sports still led with the headline: "Glorious Debut."

However, Nakamura will do well to ignore the hype from Japan with the Italian season still a month away.

The 24-year-old has always been a doyen of the Japanese tabloids and there was a national outcry when he was left out of the World Cup squad by former Japan coach Philippe Troussier earlier this summer.

Nakamura, who will cost Reggina around $3.5 million if, as expected, he signs a three-year deal in January, frequently irked Troussier with his inconsistent performances after making his Japan debut in February 2000.

'Luxury player'

Not prepared to risk selecting someone often described as a "luxury player," the Frenchman chose the more combative Mitsuo Ogasawara instead and the co-hosts went on to reach the second round of the World Cup last month.

But Nakamura, who has scored five times in 21 internationals, insists he is ready to knuckle down in Italy in a bid to regain his Japan place under new Brazilian coach Zico.

"It's only the pre-season stage but it's good to get a game against a top side [like Juventus] in early," said Nakamura, who joined Reggina from J-League club Yokohama F-Marinos after interest from Real Madrid and Atalanta.

"When I'm at the stage where I can make passes with my eyes closed I'll feel more confident, so I know I've still got work to do."

That statement will come as music to the ears of Zico, who has his work cut out to carry on where Troussier left off after almost four years in charge of Japan.

With Japan regulars Hidetoshi Nakata (Parma), Shinji Ono (Feyenoord) and Junichi Inamoto (Fulham) all plying their trade in Europe, Zico already has the foundations in place.

But a hungrier, more consistent Nakamura would be a huge boost for Japan as they look towards the defense of their Asian Cup title in China in 2004.

Between now and then Nakamura might want to take a leaf out of Nakata's book and simply ignore what the papers say.

 

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Reuters contributed to this report.