Entire nation welcomes heroes

World Cup Final: For the rest of you the World Cup might be over but in Italy, it is only beginning. Italy's heroes last night returned to the first and biggest of a series of parties that will mark their World Cup triumph when they paraded through the centre of Rome in a celebration which, suitably, concluded on the ancient Roman playing field of Circus Maximus.

On arrival at the military airport of Pratica di Mare, near to Rome, the first man off the plane was the captain courageous himself, Fabio Cannavaro, with that golden World Cup still in his hands. If Cannavaro was offended by the fact that a majority of our colleagues - hacks never understand anything - voted for Frenchman Zinedine Zidane as the best player of the tournament rather than for him, he was not showing his disappointment.

Three steps off the airplane and to the delight of the fans, a smiling Cannavaro raised the trophy high above his head just as he had done at the Olympiastadion on Sunday night. Reports suggest that the Italian has quickly become much attached to the trophy, so much so that he slept with it on Sunday night.

Amidst chaotic scenes, the players and coach Marcello Lippi struggled across the runway to their waiting bus which was to take them to the Circus Maximus with a tour of central Rome and a visit to prime minister Romano Prodi thrown in along the way.

Alessandro Del Piero, scorer of one of the five penalties in Sunday night's shoot-out, was looking just a little bleary. Are you tired because of the flight from Germany or because of the emotions aroused by winning the World Cup, asked a TV reporter clearly short on intelligent questions: "What a question", answered Del Piero, before continuing not without difficulty to the bus.

In truth, the "Azzurri" made slow progress not just at the airport but all the way into central Rome as drive time motorists stopped their cars and did a quick metamorphosis into flag waving, horn-blowing fans.

Even after the players had left the Pratica di Mare airport, fans queued up to walk on board their plane in a strange sort of pilgrimage in search of who knows what symbol of devotion to the Azzurri cause.

As Italy celebrate their fourth World Cup title, proud in the knowledge that only Brazil have won the trophy more often, much attention focused on the man at the helm of this success, Marcello Lippi. Speaking in Germany yesterday before the team returned to Italy, Lippi would not confirm the widespread belief that he intended to leave the Italy job, returning to club football.

In this maddest of hot Italian summers, of course, that same Juventus are currently in the dock at the Football Federation hearing in Rome into match fixing.

Showing plenty of good sense, the judges in the corruption trial chose not to release their verdict yesterday. Even Fifa's PR men could tell you that a World Cup win and a relegation for the club that supplied eight of the players involved in the final is not good public relations.

In all probability, the hearing's verdict will be released today or tomorrow with Juventus - eight players in the final notwithstanding - almost certain to be relegated to Serie B and with prestigious clubs like AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio likely to find themselves docked points in Serie A next season.

All of which would mean that Italy's Champions League quartet would comprise AC Milan, Inter Milan, Fiorentina and AS Roma. However, there could be many a legal slip between cup and lip before we arrive at definitive verdict on the match fixing hearing.

There has, too, predictably been talk of an "amnesty" for all the clubs involved in "Footballgate" with no less than justice minister Clemente Mastella proposing it the other day.

Curiously, one of the most vigorous rejections of an amnesty came from the World Cup winners themselves with their talismanic midfielder Gennaro Gattuso saying in Germany last week that, win or lose in Sunday's final, those who had "done wrong things" should pay for their wrongdoing.

Gattuso's intellectual and moral rigour is admirable but it is worth noting that a report on the match fixing trial was rudely interrupted during the prime time TV news bulletin last night as the TV moved onto live pictures of Cannavaro arriving at Government House with that World Cup trophy still in his hands.

There is nothing quite like a World Cup win to set in motion a wave of nationwide feelgood. This is a feelgood that, like midfielder Gattuso, is likely to run and run.

Yesterday Didier Deschamps was appointed as the new coach of troubled Juventus.

The Frenchman has penned a two-year contract with the Italian giants and replaces Fabio Capello, who left Juve last week to join Real Madrid.