ITALY: The things a prime minister has to do to keep his people happy. Those may well have been the thoughts of the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi, this week when a looming national crisis forced him to break off his annual holidays in his luxury villa at Porto Rotondo on Sardinia's Costa Smeralda.
The national crisis in question was (and still is) of the gravest order. We are not talking forest fires, water shortages or boat people here. No, we are talking about football. More to the point, we are talking about the danger that the always keenly-anticipated restart of the nation's favourite game might be delayed, and for the second consecutive season at that.
So even as he was sorting out the seating arrangements and the menu for a visit from President Vladimir Putin of Russia, due for a few days in Porto Rotondo, the Italian Prime Minister was forced to fly back to Rome this week to chair a cabinet meeting that was primarily devoted to the looming football crisis.
Mr Berlusconi, of course, knows a thing or two about football. He is not only the owner but also, in a historical sense at least, the major strategist behind the huge success story of current European champions AC Milan. He, like millions of fans all over the country, has been perturbed by the ongoing "Catania Saga" of this summer, involving second division Sicilian club Catania.
Although relegated from the second division at the end of the season, Catania subsequently appealed that relegation, taking the appeal out of the realm of the Italian Football Federation's Disciplinary Courts and moving it into the realm of the state judiciary. Catania's move prompted other clubs to follow suit and very soon regional courts in Bologna, Catania, L'Aquila, Genoa, Reggio Calabria and Salerno were "ruling" on football matters, even ordering the rewriting of the final Division Two table standings.
At that point enter Mr Berlusconi, government decree in hand, legally obliging football clubs to accept both the federation's disciplinary rulings and also, as a final court of appeal, a Lazio Regional Court and the Council of State. It remains to be seen if the decree will be enough to calm some over-excited and over-heated football club presidents.