The Italian season begins tomorrow with much of the attention focused on Lazio, who have spent heavily in the hope of securing a title they haven't won since 1974.
The Rome club will unveil a new £30 million strike force at Piacenza comprising Christian Vieri (£18 million from Atletico Madrid) and Marcelo Salas (£12 million from the Argentinian club River Plate).
Lazio have also strengthened in other areas, signing the Spanish midfielder Ivan De La Pena as well as his compatriot Fernando Couto and Yugoslavia's Sinisa Mihailovic to bolster their defence.
Juventus begin the defence of their title at Perugia after a turbulent summer in which they were at the centre of an investigation into doping in Serie A.
Italian football was given a clean bill of health, though curbs were urged on the use of the muscle-building diet supplement creatine.
Juventus have signed three players, the midfielder Jocelyn Blanchard from Metz and the Croatians Igor Tudor and Zoran Mirkovic.
Milan signalled their determination to end two seasons of underachievement by installing a new coach, Alberto Zaccheroni, who arrives from Udinese.
Zaccheroni has brought with him Germany's Oliver Bierhoff, who was Serie A's top scorer last season, and also purchased two defenders, Bruno N'Gotty from Paris St Germain and Argentina's Roberto Ayala. Milan begin at home to Bologna, who have signed Guiseppe Signori from Sampdoria. Signori replaces Roberto Baggio, who has joined Internazionale, though Inter's exciting Baggio-Ronaldo forwardline will not feature at Cagliari because the Brazilian is suspended.
Parma look capable of winning their first championship after bringing in Diego Fuser (Lazio) and Argentina's Juan Veron and France's Alain Boghossian (both Sampdoria). They join such luminaries as Faustino Asprilla, Lilian Thuram, Hernan Crespo and Enrico Chiesa in the squad for the visit of Vicenza.
Roma appear to have a straightforward task at home to Salernitana, though the newlypromoted club have a highly rated striker in Marco Di Vaio. In the remaining fixtures, Sampdoria visit Udinese, Bari are at home to Venezia and Fiorentina entertain Empoli.
Lothar Matthaus will be recalled by Germany for next month's Euro 2000 qualifiers in Turkey and Moldova. The 37year-old Bayern Munich libero retired from international football after France '98 but was persuaded to change his mind by the new coach Erich Ribbeck, who replaced Berti Vogts on Thursday. Philippe Troussier has been appointed coach of Japan on a twoyear contract. The 43-year-old Frenchman was in charge of South Africa at the World Cup finals.
