Last week it emerged that Chelsea and Inter Milan had not included Michael Ballack and Adriano respectively in their squad lists for the Champions League. Those are two players who, between them, earn nearly £12 million a year and yet, despite both being among the ten best-paid footballers in the world, neither will be allowed to star on club football’s biggest stage until 2008 at the earliest.

A spot in the list of 25 names is apparently so crucial to a club’s chances that one cannot be risked on a player who is not 100 per cent, no matter how expensive an asset he may be.

Of the two, Adriano’s is surely the more shocking tale. Around this time two years ago, the man they call “The Emperor” was arguably the most devastating striker in the game. He had just come off a season during which he had scored 25 goals in all competitions for Inter, plus a further nine for Brazil, whom he carried to victory in the Copa America.

Tall, brawny and fast - faster than anyone 6ft 2in should be allowed to be - and blessed with a magical left foot, there were times when he looked unstoppable. But the really frightening thing was that he was only 23, a man-child, still coming to terms with his body.

“The incredible thing about him is that he still has one obvious weakness, his right foot,” Fabio Capello, the former Real Madrid coach, famously said at the time. “If you look at everything he’s achieved despite being one-footed and then imagine what he could do if he brought his right foot up to a decent standard, well, at that point I think we would need to change the rules of the game. Otherwise it would just be a mismatch every time he steps on the pitch.”

All that seems so far away now. In the past two years, Adriano’s career has taken an ever-tightening downward spiral. It began with the death of his father and continued with the traumatic separation, in the autumn of 2005, from his girlfriend, Daniela, who was pregnant at the time.

“It was a horrible time,” Adriano said. “I felt abandoned and I began to look for comfort elsewhere, in bars and nightclubs. I also began to drink heavily. I wanted alcohol to absorb all my problems.”

There followed more indiscipline, a failed reconciliation with Daniela (who had since given birth to his son), tales of excess (according to reports, he regularly blew £30,000 a night on hotel suites and “entertainment”) and, famously, a fistfight with a 6ft 10in, 20st professional basketball player named Rolando Howell in a Milan nightspot. All this while his performances on the pitch were hitting rock bottom.

After sinking with the rest of the Seleção at the 2006 World Cup finals, Adriano limped through last season, scoring only five league goals in 23 appearances. And now this. Left out of the Champions League.

“He needs time to rediscover himself and what made him a great footballer,” Roberto Mancini, the Inter coach, said. “We’re ready to support him in any way we can. And maybe not having the pressure of the Champions League can help him. But he has to be the one to change. He has to be the one to help himself.”

Last May, I asked Pelé about Adriano and another troubled Brazil striker, Ronaldo. “Ronaldo is more likely to come back to 100 per cent,” Pelé said. “That’s because he has had highs and lows and has shown the character to come back. But Adriano is a boy, he’s a child. This is his first important setback. And now we are finding that maybe he cannot deal with it. I pray for him.”

Adriano is only 25. But that is his physical age. Mentally, as one Inter player said, he is “in his mid-teens”. Which may help to explain why coming to grips with death and break-up is so hard for him. And the fact that, every two weeks, another £230,000 finds its way into his bank account is neither help nor consolation.

France tried and trusted

The rematch of the 2006 World Cup final between France and Italy ended in a tense scoreless draw, casting doubt on whether the Azzurri will qualify for Euro 2008 or whether Scotland or Ukraine will beat them into second place (France look set to be the runaway group winners).

It is curious to note, however, how Raymond Domenech, the France coach, continues to defy conventional wisdom. His initial lineup on Saturday featured three players who are not regulars at club level - Claude Makelele, Lilian Thuram and Lassana Diarra - but are nevertheless good enough to start for Les Bleus. At least in his mind.

Sexy football in Italy

Sex (or at least the sale thereof, whether in real or fantasy terms) has long been associated with football.

Yet a milestone was reached last week in Italy when ContoTV, a hardcore porn channel, outbid other broadcasters to secure the rights to show Fiorentina’s Uefa Cup first-round tie against Groningen on September 20.

Just a publicity stunt? Probably, although ContoTV executives describe it as an attempt to offer their viewers “something different”. Whether the action will be quite as titillating remains to be seen. After all, it is the Uefa Cup.

gabriele.marcotti@thetimes.co.uk