Italian fencers upset as footballers fly first class

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's successful women's fencing team were angered at the weekend when they flew back from Beijing in economy while the nation's under-achieving Olympic soccer players were stretching out in first class.

Valentina Vezzali won gold in the individual foil at the Games with Margherita Granbassi taking bronze before Italy finished third in the team foil event.

The soccer side surprisingly lost to Belgium in the quarter-finals.

Raffaele Pagnozzi, the head of the Italian Olympic delegation, tried to calm the row.

"The Italian Olympic Committee bought economy class plane tickets for all the athletes, without any disparity between the various sports," he told reporters on Monday.

"If then some individual national federation, like the soccer federation, has chosen to increase the budget for a change in class it is a decision which has nothing to do with us."

Several Italian medal winners in less high profile sports have also called for a tax exemption on the prize money awarded to them by the Olympic Committee.

(Writing by Mark Meadows; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)