Wandering Italy to consider making Rome their home

MILAN, Oct 9 (Reuters) Italian soccer officials are to consider making Rome's Olympic stadium the permanent home for their World Cup-winning team, ending the tradition of playing games around the country.

But the suggestion could cause a political row in Italy, where there are strong regional identities, while Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has already criticised the luke-warm support for the team in Rome.

Italy beat Ukraine 2-0 in a Euro 2008 qualifier in the capital on Saturday and Gianni Petrucci, head of the Italian Olympic Committee, said he intends to put the idea of making the venue the full-time base of the Azzurri to soccer officials.

''I would like it if the Olympic stadium became the national team's stadium. It will be one of the discussions on the table for the future president of the Football Federation,'' said Rome-born Petrucci in comments reported by the daily Gazzetta dello Sport.

The man Petrucci appointed to be temporary commissioner of the Federation, Luca Pancelli, gave some support to the idea.

''I can't deny that when I was leaving the stadium I had the same idea. It would be nice to make Rome the fixed home for the national team, especially given the extraordinary response that the capital has always given to big events,'' he said.

''But I take into account that there are other cities that would want and would deserve to host the national side and so this is a proposal to weigh up well and approve in a democratic way,'' added the Federation chief, who was also born in Rome.

Italy, like Germany and Spain, play their home games at different venues with matches in the past few years played as far apart as Palermo in Sicily and Trieste, close to the border with Slovenia.

The Olympic stadium is already home to the two Serie A clubs -- AS Roma and Lazio -- but Italy keeper Buffon, who plays in Turin for Juventus, says the atmosphere for the Ukraine match was far weaker than for club games.

''Against Ukraine the atmosphere was like that of a theatre.

I know this stadium and it can feel like an extra man for a team. If the fans want to give you a hand they can do. I pay attention to these things and the first chant for us didn't come until the 28th minute and then I didn't hear anything more,'' said Buffon.

''I wasn't angered by this but it made me sad,'' added the keeper, who said that Italy fans across the country needed to ''learn to escape from localism''.

''There is a more general matter -- there always seems to be a reason not to support Italy,'' he said.

REUTERS AY RK1524