Italy-Luxembourg friendly called off after quake

Parma: Italy's friendly against Luxembourg has been cancelled after another earthquake shook northern Italy on Tuesday.

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit in the morning, killing at least 10 people in the same region still struggling to recover from another deadly tremor on May 20.

The quake was just 36 miles (58 kilometers) east of Parma, where Italy were scheduled to play Luxembourg in a Euro 2012 warm-up match. The team hotel was evacuated briefly in the morning.

Italy coach Prandelli's Euro 2012 preparations have been disturbed by the earthquake.

"Faced with what happened, to the tremors that keep coming, we're not playing the Italy game," Vincenzo Bernazzoli, president of the Parma province said. "In our region thousands of citizens have been devastated in a few hours. With the victims, with the continuing shocks, it didn't seem right to us to continue with the game. Football has to stop."

It is another disruption to Italy's preparations after the Azzurri training center was raided on Tuesday by police investigating a match-fixing scandal. Domenico Criscito was sent home after he was placed under investigation while Leonardo Bonucci is also reportedly under suspicion but has had no official warning and remains with the squad.

Italy went on to win the World Cup the last time they had their tournament preparations disrupted. The 2006 match-fixing scandal — known as Calciopoli — resulted in Juventus being relegated to Serie B for a season, plus points penalties for several other Serie A teams and lengthy bans for club and refereeing officials.

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