EURO 2008 INFO

The Italy-Romania match, scheduled Friday in Zurich in the framework of the Euro-2008 (group C), has no connection with the recent immigration issues between the two countries, said Tuesday the Romanian defender Cosmin Contra, quoted by the Mediafax agency, since the base camp of his Swiss team.

Questioned by Italian journalists anxious to know whether the game will be more tense because of political problems, Contra was surprised that it "insists on this issue."

"The match has nothing to do with the political situation," said the defender of Getafe (1st div. Spanish) after training in St. Gallen (Switzerland), following the tie against France (0 -- 0).

"We are not guilty because there are criminals in Italy and Spain, he said. There are criminals from other countries but we do not speak the same."

The right-wing government of Silvio Berlusconi adopted last month, measures relating to the creation of an offence of illegal immigration and allowing evictions "easier", aimed particularly immigrants from Romania.

Relations between Bucharest and Rome were strained last November after the murder of an Italian awarded to a Romanian of Roma origin, which had provoked a wave of xenophobia against immigrants from Romania.