Now here’s a news that is as short as it is funny (except to those directly involved).
Euro 2008 organisers have resolved an argument with tax authorities in Switzerland, by agreeing that players involved in the tournament should be taxed at source. In a statement released on Friday, the organisers said players would be taxed a flat rate of 20% on any prize money passed on to them by their national associations. The rule will not be applied to coaches, association officials or other non-playing delegates.
European soccer body UEFA had argued that the players should only pay taxes in their home countries, while the Swiss authorities had called for taxes to be levied locally at rates set by the individual host cantons. Under the agreement, UEFA will now withhold part of the prize money awarded to the various associations, who will then have to provide details on the payouts given to each player before receiving any money left over.
The flat rate tax will be applied to all players whether they play their matches in Switzerland or in co-hosting Austria. The statement did not say whether players would still be expected to pay additional tax back home, or if they would pay more tax in total as a result of the agreement. Organizers said the deal would involve an estimated total taxation of between 4 and 8 million Swiss francs ($3.6-7.1m dollars, or €2.4-4.8m Euros).
I guess all that is left for the players to do is emigrate to Patagonia, like Florent Pagny (sorry, I guess only French people will get that one).
Ex-England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, now in charge of Manchester City, said he could understand the clamour for Mourinho but warned he would be taking on “the biggest job in football”. “Mourinho has already shown that he is big with Porto and with Chelsea, so if he has been winning trophies for them, he can do it with England as well“, said the Swede to 
Eventually, the Viola broke through and took the lead in the 29th minute, and all it took were 5 passes. What’s so special about that, you may ask? Well, those 5 passes were all the ball needed to travel from one end of the field to the other, litterally: from Montolivo to Liverani, back to Montolivo, executing a through pass for Vieri. Bobo immediately set up Osvaldo, who dribbled his marker and armed a low accurate shot into the bottom corner. 1-0 Fiorentina.
From then on, both teams redefined the notion of “battling it out”, especially because the field was in absolutely horrible conditions, making each pass and each control of the ball very very hard to execute. Fabio Liverani was litterally under an all-out-marking spell, reducing his moving space to virtually zero, but managed to nonetheless to take a few stabs at the net, especially in the 2nd half. The one having a real ball though was Zdravko Kuzmanovic, attempting his long-range shot on more than one occasion (wide). Osvaldo had another chance to make it two with a close-range header, but found the intervention of the Greek keeper ready..gif)
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