Serie A 2007-08

Serie A 2007-08 Winners
Internazionale 16th Title

The 2007-08 Serie A football season was the seventy-sixth since its establishment, and started on August 26, 2007 and ended on 18 May 2008. Internazionale successfully defended the championship on the final day of the season, finishing first with 85 points, three ahead of AS Roma.

Events

Plusvalenze investigation

Inquiries are being conducted by the CO.VI.SOC. (Italian football's financial watchdogs) into the finances of four Serie A clubs (Internazionale, Milan, Sampdoria, and Reggina) who stand accused of falsely inflating player values - a practice known as plusvalenze in Italian - in order to qualify financially for the 2005-06 Serie A campaign. If the allegations prove true, penalties could range from fines to point deductions, relegation to Serie B, and even the stripping of Internazionale's 2005-06 scudetto (which was actually stripped from Juventus as a result of the Calciopoli scandal before being awarded to Internazionale).

Lazio fan killed by police

In the morning of November 11, 2007 26-year old Lazio fan Gabriele Sandri, a DJ from Rome, was killed, apparently by a policeman, after the police had clashed with Juventus ultras on the A1 Motorway service station of Badia al Pino in Arezzo. Early reports suggested that a stray bullet from a gun, set to distract the group of ultras, hit the Lazio fan in the neck as he sat in a car and killed him. An emergency meeting set up between Lega Calcio president Antonio Matarrese and police chief Antonio Manganelli decided that the game between Inter and Lazio would be called off, but the rest of the fixtures would go ahead that day, starting at a slightly later time (about 10 minutes later). The Atalanta–Milan game was eventually suspended following unrest caused by local ultras attempting to break off the protection glass in order to invade the pitch and stop the match. Later in the afternoon, the Italian Football Federation chose to postpone also the game between AS Roma and Cagliari, whose kick off was scheduled for 8.30 pm at Stadio Olimpico, Rome. However, this did not prevent violent riots, as hundreds of armed hooligans attacked a police barracks and the CONI (Italian Olympic National Committee) headquarters in Rome.

Sandri's death was later shown to have been caused by a tragic error by a policeman who allegedly did not recognize him as a football fan. Prosecutors then opted initially to open an inquiry into manslaughter against the policeman.

Final week

The championship was assigned in the final week, as Inter, who managed to secure even a 10-point advantage to rivals Roma in mid-season, lost almost all of it in the final weeks, maintaining only a one-point advantage with only one match to play. In the final week, both Inter and Roma were scheduled to play away matches opposed to relegation-battling sides, respectively Parma and Catania. Both matches were successively forbidden to be attended by Inter and Roma fans. In the end, Inter secured the scudetto with a 2–0 win, with both goals being scored in the second half by Zlatan Ibrahimović, who recovered from a long-time injury right in time to play the game, whereas Roma only managed to achieve a 1–1 tie at Stadio Angelo Massimino against Walter Zenga's Catania, a result which allowed the Sicilian side to escape relegation at the expense of Empoli and Parma.

2007-2008 teams

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity	2006-2007 season
Atalanta B.C.	Bergamo	Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia	26,393	8th in Serie A
Cagliari Calcio	Cagliari	Stadio Sant'Elia	23,486	16th in Serie A
Calcio Catania	Catania	Stadio Angelo Massimino	23,420	13th in Serie A
Empoli F.C.	Empoli	Stadio Carlo Castellani	19,795	7th in Serie A
ACF Fiorentina	Florence	Stadio Artemio Franchi, Florence	47,282	6th in Serie A
Genoa C.F.C.	Genoa	Stadio Luigi Ferraris (Marassi)	36,685	3rd in Serie B
F.C. Internazionale Milano	Milan	Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro)	82,955	Serie A Champions
Juventus F.C.	Turin	Stadio Delle Alpi	69,000	Serie B Champions
S.S. Lazio	Rome	Stadio Olimpico	82,307	3rd in Serie A
A.S. Livorno Calcio	Livorno	Stadio Armando Picchi	19,238	11th in Serie A
A.C. Milan	Milan	Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro)	82,955	4th in Serie A
S.S.C. Napoli	Naples	Stadio San Paolo	60,240	2nd in Serie B
U.S. Città di Palermo	Palermo	Stadio Renzo Barbera	37,242	5th in Serie A
Parma F.C.	Parma	Stadio Ennio Tardini	27,906	12th in Serie A
Reggina Calcio	Reggio Calabria	Stadio Oreste Granillo	27,454	16th in Serie A
A.S. Roma	Rome	Stadio Olimpico	82,307	2nd in Serie A
U.C. Sampdoria	Genoa	Stadio Luigi Ferraris (Marassi)	36,685	9th in Serie A
A.C. Siena	Siena	Stadio Artemio Franchi, Siena	15,373	15th in Serie A
Torino F.C.	Turin	Stadio Olimpico di Torino	27,168	17th in Serie A
Udinese Calcio	Udine	Stadio Friuli	41,652	10th in Serie A

League table

2007-2008 results table

• Please note that the home teams are read down the left hand side while the away teams are indicated along the top.

updated to games played May 17, 2008

Top goalscorers

Only players with at least 10 goals

Updated to games played May 17, 2008 21 goals

• Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus) 20 goals
• David Trezeguet (Juventus) 19 goals
• Marco Borriello (Genoa) 17 goals
• Antonio Di Natale (Udinese)
• Zlatan Ibrahimović (Internazionale)
• Adrian Mutu (Fiorentina) 15 goals
• Amauri (Palermo)
• Kaká (Milan) 14 goals
• Goran Pandev (Lazio)
• Tommaso Rocchi (Lazio)
• Francesco Totti (Roma) 13 goals
• Julio Ricardo Cruz (Internazionale)
• Massimo Maccarone (Siena) 12 goals
• Nicola Amoruso (Reggina)
• Claudio Bellucci (Sampdoria)
• Cristiano Doni (Atalanta)
• Fabio Quagliarella (Udinese) 11 goals
• Filippo Inzaghi (Milan) 10 goals
• Robert Acquafresca (Cagliari)
• Antonio Cassano (Sampdoria)
• Francesco Tavano (Livorno)

Coaches

Club	Head coach	From	To
Atalanta
Cagliari
Catania
Empoli
Fiorentina
Genoa
Internazionale
Juventus
Lazio
Livorno
Milan
Napoli
Palermo
Parma
Reggina
Roma
Sampdoria
Siena
Torino
Udinese

2007-08 events

• Atalanta: on June 9, 2007 Luigi Del Neri was announced as new head coach following Stefano Colantuono's departure to Palermo.
• Cagliari: on November 13 Cagliari chairman Massimo Cellino sacked Marco Giampaolo and replaced him with veteran coach Nedo Sonetti, who already served twice with the rossoblu before this new appointment. On December 19 Sonetti tendered his resignation, after he managed to achieve only one point in three matches in charge, and Cellino called Giampaolo to serve again as rossoblu head coach. However, Giampaolo, still linked to Cagliari by a contract, turned down the opportunity to return. The next day, the club announced that it had rejected Sonetti's resignation. Sonetti was ultimately sacked only a few days later, on December 27, following a crushing 5–1 loss to Fiorentina, and replaced by Davide Ballardini, who served as Cagliari head coach in the early weeks of the 2005–06 season.
• Catania: on June 3, 2007 Silvio Baldini was announced as new head coach. The team initially enjoyed a good shape, notably gaining a spot in the Coppa Italia semi-finals, but lost position with time, being in 16th place as of Week 31, only three points ahead of last-placed Empoli, convincing Baldini to leave the club with mutual consent on March 31, 2008. He was replaced the next day by Walter Zenga, former head coach of Red Star Belgrade and Steaua Bucharest, at his first coaching experience with a Serie A team.
• Empoli: on November 26, 2007 the Tuscan side chose to sack Luigi Cagni, who achieved only ten points in fourteen matches (18th place in the league table) and failed to win the UEFA Cup 2007-08 first round, replacing him with Alberto Malesani. On March 31, 2008, after a 2–0 home loss to Sampdoria which left Empoli alone in last place, the board decided to sack Malesani, reinstalling Cagni in charge.
• Juventus: on June 4, 2007 former Parma head coach Claudio Ranieri was unveiled as new boss.
• Livorno: on October 9, 2007 Fernando Orsi was sacked following a string of poor results that brought the team down to bottom place in the league with two points and no win after seven games. The position was then filled by Giancarlo Camolese the next day. Camolese initially managed to improve Livorno's performances; however in the final part of the season Livorno entered into a deep result crisis that led them down to the league bottom, with three matches remaining, and Camolese being ultimately sacked on April 28, 2008, with Orsi re-appointed back at the helm of the amaranto.
• Palermo: on June 7, 2007 Stefano Colantuono of Atalanta was announced to be the next rosanero boss for the 2007-08 season. However, on November 26 Colantuono was sacked following a 5–0 defeat to Juventus, and club chairman Maurizio Zamparini appointed Francesco Guidolin as his replacement, inaugurating a fourth spell with Palermo for the tactician. However, results did not improve under Guidolin, and three consecutive losses, followed by some controversial post-match comments in a 2–3 home loss to Genoa on March 22, 2008 led Zamparini to re-appoint Colantuono at the helm of the rosanero on March 24.
• Parma: on June 12, 2007 Domenico Di Carlo was announced as new boss following the departure of Claudio Ranieri. However, as Parma struggled to keep themselves off the relegation battle, Di Carlo was sacked on March 10, 2008 following a 1–2 home defeat to Sampdoria. The next day the club announced to have appointed Héctor Cúper as new head coach. The Argentine boss did not manage to improve results, with Parma finding themselves in 18th place with only one remaining match to be played at home against first-placed Internazionale, only two points behind the last Serie A spot. On May 12 Parma chairman Tommaso Ghirardi then surprisingly announced to have sacked Cúper, replacing him with youth team coach Andrea Manzo for the final league matchday in a desperate attempt to escape relegation.
• Reggina: on June 23, 2007 news reports announced Massimo Ficcadenti as new boss following the departure of Walter Mazzarri. However, on June 27 Verona announced they were not giving Ficcadenti permission to leave the club and move to Reggina. On July 1, Reggina finally announced on their website to have appointed Ficcadenti as coach, after he successfully rescinded his contract with Verona. Ficcadenti was however sacked on November 1, following a 3–1 home loss to last-placed Livorno and no wins in the first ten league days, and veteran coach Renzo Ulivieri was appointed to replace him. However, on March 3, 2008 the club management decided to dismiss Ulivieri from his post following a 0–0 home draw to Palermo, as Reggina was filling the 19th place with 22 points, and replaced him with team scout and former youth team coach Nevio Orlandi.
• Sampdoria: on May 31, 2007 Walter Mazzarri was named new Samp boss.
• Siena: on June 12, 2007 Andrea Mandorlini was confirmed new head coach following separation by mutual consent between the club and its boss Mario Beretta. However Mandorlini was sacked on November 12, after a 2–3 home loss to Livorno which left the team in last place, and Beretta accepted to return at Siena.
• Torino: on June 6, 2007 former Sampdoria boss Walter Novellino was announced head coach for the new season, replacing Gianni De Biasi. On April 16, 2008, following a string of disappointing results that left the granata only four points ahead the relegation zone, leading to heavy criticisms from the supporting fanbase, Torino president Urbano Cairo chose to sack Novellino and reappoint De Biasi, a fan favourite, as head coach.
• Udinese: on June 5, 2007 former Catania boss Pasquale Marino was officially unveiled as new head coach.

Footnotes