The Italian Football Federation have announced that Roberto Donadoni will no longer be in charge of the Azzurri, and that 2006 World Cup winning coach Marcello Lippi will be his replacement. Donadoni had signed a two year extension to his contract before the commencement of Euro 2008, but the Italian authorities exercised the clause that allowed the contract to be annulled within ten days should Italy not have reached the semifinals of the tournament.

Lippi stepped down after leading Italy to an unlikely WC win in 2006, a match better remembered for Zinedine Zidane's moment of madness with Marco Materazzi. Should he repeat this feat in two years' time in South Africa, he will equal Vitorio Pozzo's record of two successive World Cup wins as coach for the national side. But a big overhaul might be in the offing, given that several Italian players are on the wrong side of 30.

Is a second stint after a successful first one always good ? Expectations will be high, and Lippi will not want to mar his coaching resume. But he is a tactician par excellence- his record is testimony to that. Ciro Ferrara and Angelo Peruzzi are expected to join as part of Lippi's backroom staff.

Lippi will be officially presented to the media in Italy next Tuesday.