Much has been written and spoken about the decline of the English Premier League following the recent exits of Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City from the UEFA Champions League. But this is nothing compared to the demise of the Italian league over recent years.
Those old enough to remember the 1980s will recall the golden days of Serie A. Not only was there plenty of homegrown talent, but also an abundance of foreign talent. Diego Maradona lit up the Stadio San Paolo in Napoli for seven years, winning two league titles, a Coppa Italia and a UEFA Cup. He was bought for a record fee at the time from Barcelona, which not only shows the standing of Napoli as a football club, but also the allure and attraction of Serie A. Maradona was not the only one. The Dutch trio of Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit helped AC Milan to the 1989 European Cup, whilst the French duo of Michel Platini and Zinedine Zidane were also successful foreign imports. All of the above players were classified at the time, and are currently classified, as world-class players. Yet at the moment, the only Serie A player who could potentially be labelled world-class is Paul Pogba, and maybe at a very long stretch, Arturo Vidal (Carlos Tevez perhaps during his prime may have also been included). There is a dearth of star quality foreign footballers in Serie A at the moment, and the only world-class Italian players in the league are the ageing Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo.
That the aforementioned players all play for the same team, Juventus, shows the lack of intense competition for The Old Lady. Juventus have won the last three Serie A titles, and will almost certainly win a fourth (they are already fourteen points ahead of Roma in second). These titles have not been close or competitive. In the 2012/2013 season, Juventus won by nine points, and in 2013/14 this figure was raised to seventeen. Perhaps they will go even higher this year. Juventus’ traditional challengers, AC Milan and Internazionale, are currently languishing in tenth and seventh position respectively, and their downfalls have been well publicised.
Attendances at Italian stadiums have been in almost constant decline since the 1991/92 season. Except the Juventus Stadium which is consistently 93% full, on average 44% of seats are left empty across the country.
The two major corruption scandals of the early 21st century have not helped the image of Italian football. In 2006, Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio were all relegated for their roles in the Calciopoli scandal and a further scandal in 2011 saw several footballers arrested for match-fixing offences. As well as damaging the reputation of Serie A, it added to the league’s inability to attract foreign players—who would want to play for a big club like Juventus or Lazio if they were playing in Serie B?
Instances of racism and hooliganism have further decreased the attraction of Italy as a destination for top footballers. Why would a black player want to move to Italy, where the chances of receiving racist abuse are so high? Two recent instances of crowd trouble in Italy have reinforced the image of hooliganism in Italian football. Before the 2014 Coppa Italia final in Rome, three fans were shot, one of whom later died from his injuries. Fans of Tottenham Hotspur in particular will remember the Lazio Ultras raiding a bar in Rome before a Europa League match, and stabbing the Spurs fans inside. Such events show a regression in Italian football and certainly will not aid its reputation.
There is also a financial reason for the demise of Italian football, as a result of poor management at boardroom level. Nowhere is this clearer than in the recent case of Parma, who have just been declared bankrupt. The Emilia-Romana club historically are one of Italy’s top teams—they are three times Coppa Italia winners and twice UEFA cup winners. The current President Giampetro Manenti has grossly mismanaged the club’s finances and consequently the players have not been paid all season.
With regards to English teams underperforming in the Champions League, Italian teams have been performing much worse. From Inter Milan’s victory in 2010 until last season, only three Italian teams have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League—Inter Milan in 201o/11; AC Milan in 2011/12 and Juventus in 2012/13—and none of them managed to progress to the semi-finals. During the same period, six English clubs reached the quarter-finals, Manchester United and Chelsea both reached the semi-finals, and Chelsea even managed to win the competition. It must be noted that there are currently five Italian teams in the last 16 of the Europa League (this article was written before the second leg of the round of 16 ties). Yet is success in UEFA’s second competition truly representative of the standard of Serie A?
Obviously the troubles of the English clubs in Europe’s top competition are worrying, but just remember that it could be worse. A massive regeneration of Italian football is needed from the very top downwards in order to have any chance of reliving the glory days.
