Fifty-million dollar man Christian Vieri notched up a hat-trick, Brazilian ace Ronaldo started on the bench, AC Milan and Juventus were held to draws by newly promoted sides and Lazio beat Manchester United 1-0 in the European SuperCup in Montecarlo.

If the opening skirmishes mean anything, then Italy's Serie A championship seems sure to live up to its lavish if traditional (hometown) billing of il campionato piu bello - the best in the world.

As always, the new season's start-up was accompanied by nationwide media-hype pointing out that the Serie A is bigger, more expensive, and more televised than ever. Whether it is any better, remains to be seen.

What is certain is that soccer in Italy now represents the equivalent of the 13th largest industrial group in the country with an annual turnover of $4.5 billon. The 450 (approx) players who make up the squads of the 18 Serie A teams earn an estimated total of $440 million a year. In other words, the average annual Serie A salary is just a little short of $1 million per man, after-tax.

This calculation might seem grossly exaggerated until you take into account the wage packets of Serie A's top earners. Heading this particular millionaire's classification is the refound Juventus star and would-be seasonal saviour, Alessandro Del Piero, who is on a handy $5.5 million a year, after tax. Following in his footsteps all the way to the bank are Vieri (Inter Milan, $4.4 million), Ronaldo (Inter Milan, $4 million), Argentine Juan Veron (Lazio, $3.8 million), Alessandro Nesta (Lazio, $3 million), Argentine Gabriel Batistuta (Fiorentina, $2.7 million), Czech Pavel Nedved (Lazio, $2.6 million), German Oliver Bierhoff (AC Milan, $2.2 million), Francesco Totti (AS Roma, $2.2 million), Dutchman Edgar Davids (Juventus, $2.2 million) etc.

Looked at another way, it has been estimated that the total Serie A wage packet for this 19992000 season could pay the average industrial wages of 70,000 workers. While a total of 9,431,550 Italian fans actually attended Serie A games last season, millions more will watch on television this season since, for the first time ever, two digital platform groups (D+ and Stream) are offering a variety of Pay For View and Pay TV packages which, collectively, cover all 18 Serie A teams.

The advent of full Pay TV coverage, too, will come as nothing less than total culture shock for the entire nation since this last season of the millennium signals the end of the "Sacred Soccer Sunday". No longer will Serie A be played exclusively on Sunday afternoons. Rather TV marketing requirements have enforced a totally new fixture list, which sees two Serie A games played on Saturday, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, with a further evening game being played on Sunday evening.

Nor does the new look European fixture list offer much respite, for either TV fans or players. No less than eight Italian clubs are involved in European competitions (AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio in the Champions League and Juventus, Parma, AS Roma, Bologna and Udinese in the revamped UEFA Cup). Given that these European cup ties will be played on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, then live soccer action is about to become a daily fix.

What seems sure is that Serie A's millionaires will earn their keep this year since between domestic league, Champions League, Italian Cup and international matches (remember this season concludes with the Euro2000 championships in Holland and Belgium), the top players could be called on to play 70 top flight games.

Not for nothing, many Serie A coaches have already pointed out that this season will involve obligatory turnover for those clubs rich enough to have a big (and talented) enough squad to permit it. As Lazio's Swedish coach Sven Eriksson pointed out the other day: "A side that goes all the way to the final in the Champions League will have played 17 games. Now, work it out yourself, 17 games represents exactly half the Serie A season . . ."

Back on the pitch, Inter coach Marcello Lippi put Ronaldo on the bench for the start of Inter's opening game, signalling a new era in the club's sometimes too indulgent handling of their talented Brazilian.

Nor was it a matter of no significance that Christian Vieri, the world's most expensive player at $52 million following his midsummer move from Lazio to Inter, scored all three Inter goals while Ronaldo (who played for the entire second half) remained scoreless. As Lippi said afterwards, now you can see why we paid so much money for Vieri.

More of all that, however, between now and season's end on May 14th. The ever longer, ever more winding road is just beginning.