Current stare of Italian soccer? Brutto.

As much as Italians were thrilled their national team's triumph in the last World Cup, they must be equally despondent about all of the problems their country's domestic league has encountered in the last 12 months.

On Thursday, Serie A received another black eye when the Italian Soccer Federation ruled that only six stadiums meet the minimum security standards that have been put in place.

In turn, officials have authorized the closing of 25 open arenas that have been deemed unsafe, which means fans in certain cities will be prevented from watching their favorite teams play on match days. The reason for the draconian decision?

A police officer was killed by a spectator last Friday in Sicily.
These are dark days in Italian soccer. For years we have heard about the financial problems that have afflicted certain clubs. But it's only until recently that the integrity of the sport itself was called into question.

Just last summer, four of Serie A's most powerful clubs — A.C. Milan, Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio — were involved in a major match-fixing scandal. Juventus, the main perpetrator, was punished by being relegated to a lower division. Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina were all docked points for the upcoming season.

Not long after the details of the malfeasance were revealed, there was a mass exodus of international stars, who weren't exactly keen about sticking around to see how this whole mess would turn out.

Ukrainian striker extraordinaire Andriy Shevchencko waved goodbye to Milan and bolted for the English Premiership. Fabio Cannavaro, FIFA's World Player of the Year, left Juventus for Real Madrid.

Long accused of being a top-heavy league, Serie A now lacks great competition even among its elite teams. Inter, which was not involved in the scandal, has yet to lose a match this season and now holds an 11-point advantage over its next closest rival, Roma.

But is anyone watching?

As most of the stadiums have closed their doors, more pages will be written in this sad chapter of Italian soccer. With no crowds cheering them on, players will run around in empty tombs. It will border on the surreal — much like everything these days that is associated with Italian soccer.