By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
From 1991 to 2000 Seria A had the highest UEFA coefficient. This was so because the league was competitive and exciting.
During the heyday of Italian football, every year there were seven sides that routinely challenged for the Scudetto (League Title). These seven sides were Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus, Parma, AS Roma, Lazio and Fiorentina; they were known as ‘ Le Sette Sorelle’, meaning ‘ The Seven Sisters’.
Fast forward 20 years from then to now the entire Italian football system is completely different. In an interview with CNN, Italian Football historian, John Foot said: “They (Italy) had a golden goose in the 90s and they killed it…”
The Seria A used to be very popular among Sierra Leoneans, even though access to satellite was a bit rare in the country but they were following the league no matter the strain. Teams like Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan all succeeded in winning fans at this far end of the world. But over the decades this fan base has gradually shrunk to small cells of supporters who could even hardly follow their teams due to the low interest among cinema owners to screen the league.
A major cause for that is the steady decline of the standard of the league and probably the most significant cause is the emergence of the English Premier League and the Spanish Primera Division.
Ahmed Sesay, a former die hearted Juventus fan, told Politico: “Today we all follow the English or Spanish League because it gives us more excitement and all the big stars are playing in these leagues.”
Ahmed is now a Manchester City fan. His experience is a summary of how most Italian football fans in the country have fared in the last two decades.
The Money effect
Football finance expert Harry Philips summarized the cause for the fall of Italian football in these words: “There are many reasons, ranging from low match day revenue streams and other lackluster commercial revenue streams to issues of corruption and violence.”
Harry’s comment is a good summary of the number of problems affecting the Italian Football. His comment about low match day revenue was reflected in Delloite’s Sport Group’s study which revealed that Seria A’s match day revenue declined from 6 million Euros to 191 million Euros loss in the 2011-12 season, driven partly by a 7% fall on average league match attendances to 22,005.
For example; on match day revenue, English club Chelsea makes six times over what AS Roma makes for a match. A huge cause for all these negative figures is a result of the financial meltdown that hit Europe in 2012 and Italy was one of the worst affected countries alongside Spain, Greece , Portugal and Ireland.
Just last season former Italian champions Parma were in a financial mess. It got so bad that they could not afford to pay their players since the start of the season or even power the flood lights in their stadium during matches. They had to be bailed out by the Italian Football Federation and they ended relegating after.
As of 2014 the total league debt of Seria A stood at a whooping sum of 1.5 billion Euros. This speaks volumes of the financial status of the league.
On a football front it has been boring for a while now. Last season champions Juventus won the league with more than 20 point difference between them and the runners up. Juve have won the last three edition of the Scudetto and up to now they are the best team in Italy by a huge difference.
Glory days
However, there has been a glimpse of hope this season but this is far from anything than it was from 2006 and beyond. During those days Zinedine Zidane , Kaka and Fabio Cannavaro all won the FIFA player of the year award whiles playing for Italian teams. In 2006 all 23 squad players in the Italian national team were playing for Italian clubs and that team won the World Cup. Marcelo Lippi, the coach who led the team to that famous World Cup victory said, even if he was allowed to pick 60 players for his World Cup team he would still have a major head ache in terms of who to select and who to drop. Such was the level of talents in the Italian set up by then.
The fall of Italian football started with the match fixing scandal that Juventus were found guilty of. That incident rocked Italian football to the core; the league lost its pride, its glamour and most importantly its credibility.
Even though the picture of the Italian football is a grim one but there are people who are focusing on the positives. British broadcaster James Richardson is an Italian football enthusiast. During the 90s he was the standard bearer of Italian football on British TV.
Richardson said: “You have to view Seria A’s progress in to context.” He continued: “The thing is that there has been an explosion of money in other leagues.”
Speaking of money, other leagues have benefitted immensely from the money burst across European football. Ligue 1 (France), Bundesliga (Germany) and Premier League (England) have been in the fore front of this benefit. For this reason one cannot see the progress Italian league is making.
But there is hope; a success story for Italy has been Juventus. After the match fixing scandal which led to their relegation they have returned back in style, already the Old Lady has won the last three editions of the Scudetto. They even became the first ever team to win the league unbeaten in the new 38 games format.
Marketing wise Juventus has undergone a revolution; in 2011 they opened their new stadium, the only club owned stadium in Italy. “Juve’s success and new stadium have given others a model to aspire to,” says Richardson. This has prompted teams like Napoli, AS Roma and Sampodoria to table stadium proposals and even Inter Milan are considering the possibility of leaving San Siro in the future.
In 2013, the Bianconerri side earned the highest revenue in the UEFA Champions League, even more than winners Bayern Munich. As Richardson described, Juve are the model of success that other Italian teams must emulate to get back on track.
Another positive is the growth of young players that have benefited the Italian national side. The development of players like Marco Verrati, Mario Ballotelli, and Ricardo Montolivo, among others, has served as the perfect supply line to the Italian national team in the last decade. “There are so many technically gifted, very talented young players in the Italian Seria A now, which is the opposite to what’s going on with English players in the Premier League,” John Foot, Italian football historian, says.
Best coaches
For a long time now the English Premier League has been worried about the influx of foreign players in the league. Little wonder why FA Chairman, Greg Dyke, has moved to tighten up work permit condition for non- European players. In the future, English officials will only allow players whose national sides are ranked among the top 50 countries in the FIFA rankings.
Italy has been an amazing production line for the very best coaches to the world. Italy can boast of world class managers, probably more than any other country in the world. Coaches like Carlo Ancelotti, Marcelo Lippi, Claudio Ranieri, Roberto Mancini, Fabio Capello and Antonio Conte are among the most successful coaches in world football.
Even when most people will agree that the Seria A is on a drop but the history is great and the future is bright.
“ Seria A has finally got its act together on TV rights,” Foot says, “ and you can see clubs like Napoli and Udinese investing their money wisely or making long term plans.”
The Italian league depends heavily on TV revenue since match day turn outs are dry. According to Deloitte, during 2011-12 season, Inter Milan, AS Roma, and Napoli saw more than half of their revenues come from TV money. For clubs like Juventus and AC Milan the figure was close to 50%. These figures underline the importance of TV revenues to the league.
On the pitch this year, Seria A is poised to be the most exciting league challenge in Europe this season. Napoli are currently leading the table with 44 points after 20 games; defending Champions Juve seat just behind them in second place with 42 points after 20 games; Inter are third with 40 points after the same amount of games. Just four points separate the top three sides in the league, the closest title challenge in a long time.
The biggest names in world football might be missing from Italy but the crop of young stars and highly technical coaches that are coming through the system, the increased competitiveness of the league are all signs that the Italian football system is getting up from its knees.
(C) Politico 19/01/16
