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29 March 2024

AC Milan favored to defend Serie A title

Published
By AP

AC Milan is favored to defend its Serie A title when the new season begins this weekend, while crosstown rival Inter Milan attempts to overcome the imminent departure of top striker Samuel Eto'o and adapt to new coach Gian Piero Gasperini.

Milan's squad is virtually unchanged from last season, and already beat Inter 2-1 in the Italian Super Cup earlier this month.

"Inter remains our most dangerous opponent, but we're still the favorites for the title," said Milan's second-year coach Massimiliano Allegri. "When we decide to play, we're capable of beating anyone."

Eto'o has agreed to a deal with Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala that should make him the highest paid footballer in the world at a salary of €20 million ($29 million) net per season.

Eto'o led Inter with 37 goals in all competitions last season, having replaced Diego Milito as the club's biggest scoring threat.

"They're losing a lot of quality," said Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic. "There are not many players like him. He's one of the best."

Inter is eyeing Diego Forlan of Atletico Madrid, Ezequiel Lavezzi of Napoli or Carlos Tevez of Manchester City as a replacement for Eto'o.

Inter president Massimo Moratti has tried to calm fans' ire by saying he's making the move due to concerns over UEFA's new financial fair play standards.

"The fans were also upset when Ibrahimovic left Inter, but then look how that ended up," Moratti said, recalling how Inter won its fifth consecutive Serie A title and the Champions League in 2009-10 after Ibrahimovic bolted to Barcelona — only to return to Italy with Milan a year later.

Milan opens at Cagliari on Saturday, while Inter hosts Lecce on Sunday.

However, captains of all 20 clubs have signed a document threatening a strike if a new collective contract is not signed before the start of the season.

The conflict between the players and the league has been going on since the last collective contract expired in June 2010.

The players set two strike dates during the first half of last season, both of which were avoided with last-minute verbal agreements.

Revamped Juventus is slated to begin at Udinese on Sunday, then open its new 41,000-seat stadium against Parma two weeks later.

Having finished seventh last season, Juventus didn't qualify for Europe and responded by making wholesale changes. Antonio Conte, a former player for the 27-time champion, was hired to replace Luigi Del Neri as coach and high-profile signings thus far have included: forward Mirko Vucinic (from Roma), midfielders Andrea Pirlo (Milan) Arturo Vidal (Bayer Leverkusen) and fullbacks Stephan Lichtsteiner (Lazio) and Reto Ziegler (Sampdoria).

Other contenders include Napoli, Udinese, Lazio and Roma.

Napoli, which finished third last season, has thus far kept intact its high-profile attack of Marek Hamsik, Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani, but could feel the strain of competing in the Champions League — its first appearance in the top European competition since Diego Maradona led the southern club to the Italian title in 1987 and 1990.

Udinese, which finished fourth last season, was facing Arsenal in a Champions League playoff that could shape its campaign.

Lazio has added two high-profile foreigners in Germany striker Miroslav Klose and France forward Djibril Cisse, while new Roma coach Luis Enrique is still molding his squad under new American ownership.

Playmaker Stevan Jovetic has returned for Fiorentina after missing all of last season following knee surgery, while Palermo has made a series of changes after selling Javier Pastore to Paris Saint-Germain for €42 million ($60 million).

Along with Eto'o's departure and Alexis Sanchez's €26 million ($37 million) move from Udinese to Barcelona, the most expensive transfers this offseason were all moves away from Italy. And that's not by coincidence.

Besides the strike threat, the Italian league is littered with problems.

Freshly promoted Atalanta will begin the season with a six-point penalty for its role in the latest Italian match-fixing scandal, which sparked 16 arrests up and down the peninsula in a massive betting inquiry 10 days after last season concluded.

Meanwhile, Juventus and Inter are still squabbling over who should be declared the 2006 winner in a case that stretches back to the previous match-fixing scandal.

And Italy has already dropped from third to fourth, behind Germany, in the UEFA rankings that determine how many clubs from each league qualify for Europe. Starting next season, the number of Serie A teams in the Champions League will drop from four to three.

"Not too long from now, France will pass us, too, thanks to their new stadiums for Euro 2016. We'll become the fifth league in Europe," said Milan vice president Adriano Galliani, who recently compared Italy's dilapidated stadiums to worn down pizzerias.

Besides Atalanta, the other promoted clubs are Siena and Novara.

Atalanta and Siena return to the top division after one season absences, while Novara is back in Serie A for the first time in 55 years.

In addition to its point penalty, Atalanta will also be without captain Cristiano Doni, who was banned for three and a half years for his role in the match-fixing scandal.