Football: Milan car wreckers sent to Monza

The stars of Italy's Serie A had been enjoying the lifestyle of the fast-living footballer long before George Best brought his racy style to the streets of Manchester.

Women in high heels and high-powered cars have always gone hand in hand with performance on the pitch, but now it seems the wheels are coming off a little too often for the management at Milan.

Whereas Best went off the road in various boudoirs and bars, the multi- million pound investments from the Giuseppe Meazza stadium are becoming far too familiar with a variety of crash barriers and ditches.

The final straw came when the club's two French midfielders were lucky to walk away unhurt from accidents in recent weeks. First, Ibrahim Ba wrote off his Mercedes and then Marcel Desailly wrecked his Ferrari.

These were not the only incidents of a Milan player's vehicle parting company with the road. George Weah, the Liberian striker and World Footballer of the Year, escaped injury two seasons ago after crashing his car while returning to his home in France.

Faced with the prospect of losing matches through having a squad weakened by autoroute mishaps rather then groin strains, Milan are planning to send their players on a two-day course in advanced driving.

The task of teaching the Milan speedsters to take their foot off the pedal has fallen to club official and former player Daniele Massaro. His choice of venue for the lessons is the famous Monza race track, home of the Italian Formula One Grand Prix.

It remains to be seen how slow Ba and Desailly will become. Hopefully, their pace on the pitch will not be affected.