Sydney: The biggest prize in sport deserved to be handled better.
It has been less than a week since Italy's penalty shootout victory over France in Berlin, but the coveted trophy is no longer in one piece.
Pictures on the front page of Italian newspaper Il Messaggero showed skipper Fabio Cannavaro staring at the Cup, then holding up what appeared to be a piece of green malachite that has broken off its base.
When the picture was taken, Cannavaro was sitting on the Italian team bus when on his way to visit Gianluca Pessotto, the former Juventus player who is in hospital in Turin after falling from a window of the club's offices during the tournament.
The piece may have come off the trophy on the bus, according to the newspaper which also claimed it was later fixed up with glue.
The Italian captain admitted that he slept with the trophy on the night of winning the final, Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The World Cup triumph was supposed to be a boon for Italy, struggling to come to terms with the Serie A match-fixing scandal involving four of the biggest clubs in the country.
But one would not think that way considering the way the world champions treated the coveted trophy.
It is all the more ironical that the trophy was created by Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga for the 1974 World Cup after Brazil took home the original Jules Rimet Trophy following their third World Cup triumph in Mexico in 1970.
The 14-inch high trophy is made of solid 18 carat gold and shows two athletes spiralling out from the base to hold the world in their hands.
There are two layers of malachite on the base, which has room for 17 plaques to display the names of the winners.
The trophy is not due to be replaced until at least 2038, when the plaques run out. The winners of the World Cup are entitled to hold on to the trophy until the following tournament after which a replica is awarded to the holders.
The trophy itself remains the property of football's world governing body FIFA.
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