All is well that ends well. Or is it? Lazio's dramatic, late title win on Sunday's last day of the Italian season may well have restored an element of credibility to a championship contest that has rarely experienced a more bitter epilogue than that of the last week.

Lazio overtook Juventus on a dramatic day to win the title by just one point. They beat Reggina 3-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. On the same afternoon, Juventus lost 1-0 to Perugia in a match that had been interrupted for 90 minutes by a torrential downpour that left the pitch barely playable.

Doubtless, some of the thousands of Lazio fans who jammed downtown Rome late into Sunday night to celebrate their club's second-ever title success were the same fans who had started the day with a mock funeral cortege to the Olympic Stadium, bearing a cardboard coffin and banners with the inscription: "Football Is Dead." Doubtless too, some of the fans who went on a car cavalcade through the Eternal City on Sunday night were the same fans who staged an angry riot outside the Italian Football Federation's Rome headquarters last Thursday.

The riots and "funeral procession" had, of course, been prompted by Lazio anger about a disallowed Parma goal eight days ago in their 1-0 defeat by Juventus, which allowed Juventus maintain their two-point lead.

That is until, of course, Perugia's defender Alessandro Calori lumbered forward in the 50th minute to score perhaps the most important goal of the Serie A season. Many believe Perugia rendered Italian soccer a huge service in restoring credibility with their win.

"Today's result is the proof that football is clean, despite all those who say otherwise. I want to say this to the fans, even to those Juventus fans who today are obviously disappointed, you can still come to watch football, you've seen it for yourselves, football is clean," said Perugia coach Carlo Mazzone.

"Juventus have lost a title that . . . after all the squalid mysteries of the last week would only have made the number 26 look sad . . . Lazio have won a title that has become the redemption of Italian soccer," commented sports daily Gazetta Dello Sport.