Juventus have increased the working capital to 120 million euros to boost Italian football.Not only will Exor put up the EUR72 million representing its 60% stake in the Turin-based club, but it will also underwrite an extra quota of up to EUR9 million, the statement said. The amount is equivalent to the 7.5% stake held by LAFICO. Since LAFICO is an investment vehicle of Libya, its stake is frozen as a result of the international sanctions imposed on the country, which is being ravaged by civil war.

Estonian will be brining in 400 football fans for the match against Italy Euro 2012 qualification match on June 3.

"Interest [in the match] is pleasantly high. Many Estonian team supporters are taking charter flights to Italy, others will be travelling by their own means of transportation," said Tõnu Sirel, secretary general of the Football Association.

Former Roma and Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri has said that Italian national team has not been giving its full potential in the games that have been play the recently.

Ranieri described Italian football as hell and suggested some of his Roma players refused to give their all for him.

The 59-year-old has also coached in England and Spain during his career but his 18-month stay at his home town club has left him bitter.

"In football there is heaven and hell. You can decide where you want to stand between the two but compared to England, it's hell here," he told Rai TV.

UEFA president Michel Platini has said that stadiums in Italy are not good so they need to be improved. Speaking to the Italian press, Michel Platini said he feels Calcio has plenty of housekeeping to do to clean up the image it holds around Europe.

His argument revolves around the state of stadiums.

"Italian football won the World Cup in 2006, and Inter are the current world club champions, but not everything is right," Platini said.

"The stadiums in Italy are not in good condition and the image is not nice because empty stadiums are a real disaster.

UEFA president Michel Platini has said that Italian football is looking to adopt the method of financial fair play very soon.At Rome's Teatro Olimpico on Monday, Mr Platini was presented with the 'Le Ali della Vittoria 2011' prize in the international category, which is awarded by Italy's national amateur league, the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti, in recognition of human and professional services to European and world football.

The Italian team was ranked in the 14th place in the latest FIFA world rankings. Italy stays fourteenth in FIFA's January ranking, whilst Spain remains ranked as the number one national team. The Italian squad, now coached by Cesare Prandelli, has 965 points on the FIFA list; world champion Spain leads with 1887, followed closely by runner-up Holland with 1723 points.

Former Italian football coach Bearzot has passed away at the age of 83. Taking over as national team coach in 1977, Bearzot enjoyed his moment of glory in Spain when an Italian side that featured youthful goal-scorer Paolo Rossi and legendary goalkeeper Dino Zoff stunned tournament favourites Brazil 3-2 in the quarter-finals.

They then went on to defeat Poland 2-0 in the semi-finals and West Germany 3-1 in the final for Italy's third World Cup triumph.

The strike in Italy has been called off after the two parties came to an agreement. Serie A players and clubs are at odds over a proposed collective agreement that would give clubs the power to force players to accept a transfer in the final year of their contracts.

The Players' Union (AIC) last week announced that Serie A footballers would strike next weekend as no consensus has been reached.

The protracted negotiations have got to such a stage that even Italian Olympic Committee president Gianni Petrucci has hit out at the players, describing their strike plans as absurd.

Media has suggested a solution for Italy's long-standing racial problem and it involves making Mario Balotelli as the captain. Balotelli was again the subject of racist abuse from both sets of supporters during Italy’s 1-1 draw with Romania in Austria last week. A group of Italian fans displayed banners reading, “no to a multi-ethnic Italy team” and “there are no black Italians”.

Italy recorded a second consecutive win to stay on top of the table in the Euro 2012 qualifiers. This is the Italy that won in Tallinn, after being down 1-0, and that this evening repeated by winning against the Far Oer Islands 5-0, an opponent that was not very consistent and unable to come close to scoring.

Three goals in the first half by Gilardino, De Rossi and Cassano, two in the second half by Quagliarella and Pirlo and Italy finds itself leading the standings while Serbia and Slovenia tied 1-1.