Italy's secret World Cup weapon? The White Stripes.

It started last February in Bruges, at the UEFA Cup match between Bruges and Roma. When Bruges went ahead, their fans started singing the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army.” Then Roma came back to win, and their fans sang it; they took it back home, and it became the Roma hymn. Roma and Italian national team member Francesco Totti sang it, off-key, at the San Remo Song Festival. (Whether he sang it to unnerve Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer before taking the last-minute penalty that beat the Aussies is as much a mystery as what Marco Materazzi said to Zinedine Zidane before the fatal headbutt.) Now it’s been taken up as the symbolic song of the World Cup winners, and all Italy is singing it. Our only question: if in the wake of the current soccer scandals Italian magistrates order any of the top clubs to be relegated to Serie C, will fans change the lyrics to “Third Division Army”?

For those of you who can read Italian, the original story is here.

DOWNLOAD: White Stripes, "Seven Nation Army (Young Punx Remix)" (mp3, at Batteriaricaricabile)