It would have caused a sensation had Swedish strikers Hanna Ljungberg and Victoria Svensson accepted the offer of Perugia president Luciano Gaucci to sign for the Serie A club and become the first women to play in a major professional league.

But the two Scandinavians turned down the opportunity to take their place in the history books.

While on the surface Gaucci's idea appeared progressive - breaking down barriers and allowing women to enter the male-dominated world of professional soccer - underneath there was a strong suspicion that the Perugia president had other motives and it is highly questionable if the move would have been good for female football.

Gaucci has broken ground in the past, his signing of Japanese midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata in 1998 opened the door to a generation of players from the J-League to show their talents in Europe.

The club's coach Serse Cosmi was hardly known outside of the regionalised lower leagues before the Umbrian club gave him a chance to emerge as one of the brightest young coaches in the country.

But at the same time the controversial president has a reputation as a publicity seeker.

The signing of Al-Saadi Gheddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gheddafi, added little to Cosmi's squad but brought Perugia to the attention of the world's media.

It was in the midst of that publicity that Gaucci then announced his intention to sign a woman player.

TEASED MEDIA

At first he was coy about who he was going to sign but teased the Italian media by saying in September that she would be "tall and blonde with green eyes".

That description should have been warning enough to Ljungberg and Svensson of what might be in store for them if they took up Gaucci's offer to play in Italy.

Anyone who has seen Italian television's soccer shows, with models, `show girls' and players' girlfriends used as little more than eye-candy could imagine how the Swedish pair would have been treated in the media.

Indeed Natalina Ceraso Levati president of the women's division of the Italian Football League, labelled Gaucci's proposal as a publicity stunt targeted at "those who want to look at girls in shorts running after a ball".

Gaucci though insisted that he had much higher motives.

"This initiative will also be useful for the women's rights movement. We must aim to have equal rights in all senses," the Perugia president said while offering a reminder that there was no specific rule against women playing in Serie A.

Gaucci says he still wishes to sign a woman but there is a real risk that Italian soccer authorities would try to block such a move and that the matter would go to court. Such an outcome could have left Ljungberg and Svensson in legal limbo.

LEGAL BATTLE

In fact, the publicity generated by Gaucci's plan has already led the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) to take the harsh decision of barring 34-year-old Nicoletta Carlitti from playing in a men's team in her local amateur league. Her club are threatening legal action.

Of course, there is the broader question of whether it is good for women's football to have top players leaving the emerging women's leagues to play with men.

Italian women's soccer chief Ceraso Levati has rejected the idea, saying in an interview with Il Giorno: "Are there mixed teams in basketball or volleyball? Why don't presidents who love the game use their knowledge and resources to finance women's teams?"

If there is a rule that needs to be overturned in Italian soccer it is the one which defines women's soccer as "amateur".

In reality the women's Serie A is already a semi-professional league but it seems odd that the possibility of a full-time professional league is specifically rejected by the FIGC's rule book.

It would be fascinating to find out Ljungberg and Svensson or other top class women internationals are good enough to play with best men in the world, but that is only ever going to be an issue for a handful of outstanding women players.

Far more important for the game in Italy and beyond is the more patient task of developing clubs and coaching for girls and women.

There is, however, much less publicity to be gained from such work.