From the Sports Desk

It would be a surprise to see this kind of thing from an American sports team.

The captain of Inter Milan football club says he would be willing to take up an invitation for the club to play a team of Mexican Zapatista rebels.

Inter - one of Italy's biggest and most famous clubs - have built links with the Zapatistas by funding sports, water and health projects in their area of operation in Chiapas.

Team manager Bruno Bartolozzi paid a visit to a village in Chiapas last June, bearing donations from the club and its owner, Massimo Moratti. During the trip, he was approached by a Zapatista commander.

The closest US teams seem to come to this kind of stuff is free tickets for kids with cancer. Not quite the same thing as funding a clinic in Chiapas, is it?