nsr Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 I always wondered why Italian football, which was on top of the world in the mid to late 90s, is now (arguably Juventus aside) so far behind Germany, Ingurland and Spain. Apparently it's to do with a failure (or inability) to maximise revenue through use of their stadia for other purposes or corporate hosting. Most Italian clubs rent their grounds off whatever the Italian equivalent of the local cooncil is and aren't in a position to upgrade them or use them for other purposes that benefit the club. Juventus are an exception - they built their own privately owned stadium a few years ago and presumably that's one reason they're leaving the rest so far behind. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GNU_Linux Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 I always wondered why Italian football, which was on top of the world in the mid to late 90s, is now (arguably Juventus aside) so far behind Germany, Ingurland and Spain. Apparently it's to do with a failure (or inability) to maximise revenue through use of their stadia for other purposes or corporate hosting. Most Italian clubs rent their grounds off whatever the Italian equivalent of the local cooncil is and aren't in a position to upgrade them or use them for other purposes that benefit the club. Juventus are an exception - they built their own privately owned stadium a few years ago and presumably that's one reason they're leaving the rest so far behind.Italian clubs are also financial basket cases. See the sheer number of clubs that have been 'refounded' with Napoli being the biggest club to do so. Of course the financial clusterfuck is related to the stadia situation.A few other clubs are starting to get ownership of their stadiums such as Udinese. With Allegri moving on it'll be interesting to see if the others can close the gap on Juve. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsr Posted May 24, 2019 Share Posted May 24, 2019 24 minutes ago, GNU_Linux said: Italian clubs are also financial basket cases. Yeah, that's another factor - their owners haven't moved with the times and many of them are highly shady individuals. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radford Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 Everything fell into place for Channel 4. The World Cup in Italy captured the imagination of the country and the poster boy made the move to Serie A, followed by other big England stars. The creation of the Premier League had robbed those down south of any live football on terrestrial TV and up here we got a few Scottish Cup games and maybe the League Cup final. The noise, the fans, the weather, the colours, it was all so... foreign... and alluring. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsr Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 The only thing I didn't enjoy about GFI was the constant appearances of Gazza and Ince. Obviously they were aiming at a majority English audience but Italian football was interesting enough on its own and neither of them were particularly enlightening characters. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comrie Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 man i miss being 17, getting absolutely leathered at house parties and waking up to watch football italia 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvo Montalbano Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 Roberto baggio Tommy tomato gooooooaaall laaaaziiio No idea what the lyrics were but I loved everything about it, I recently watched an entire Milan derby on YouTube. Definitely the best league in the world and it was fantastic to watch. The Saturday morning preview was good also. Wilkins and Brackley best commentator team ever.Campionato... di Calcio... Italiano!(Championship... of Football... Italian; i.e The Italian Football Championship).A great theme song, the actual track it is sampled from is quite good too but you must want to get to the recognisable bit tbh. Gazetta Football Italia on Saturday morning was fantastic, I'm sure Transworld Sport was on beforehand too which was a good watch with loads of African football, American sports, Asian stuff and the Channel 4 Kabadi would have been of a similar vintage. The use of the riff from Jack and Diane in the background when they went through the league tables was also inspired, as was using Ken Wolstenholme as the voiceover to balance the more relaxed Richardson and his little skits. Football Italia on the Sunday though was even better. Live football with the best players in the world, what's not to like? Although when it was Luther Blissett or Joe Jordan it was ever as good as when the dream team of Peter Brackley and Ray Wilkins - surely the best commentary duo ever on TV? When they covered games from the San Siro it was incredible - especially since they seemed to be there (Richardson often was, I think the commentators were in London?) - and I'm glad that I've seen Milan play there given there are always rumours they'll tear it down and build a smaller ground with more corporate facilities like Juventus. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsr Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 I'd have to disagree about Brackley - I was never too impressed by his grasp of what was going on. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salvo Montalbano Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 I'd have to disagree about Brackley - I was never too impressed by his grasp of what was going on.To be fair I did say commentary duo - there was just something about their chemistry. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comrie Posted May 25, 2019 Share Posted May 25, 2019 when this plays i've basically got a semi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevieKTID Posted May 26, 2019 Share Posted May 26, 2019 (edited) Brilliant thread! I remember in 1994 treating my self to a Torino home shirt I felt super cool playing 5's. Last night I watched the documentary posted previously, I must've been dreaming about it because my waking thought was "nice one gazetta Italia is on" quite disappointing when I realised it wasn't. Edited May 26, 2019 by stevieKTID 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabGaz Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 I was far too young to appreciate it at the time but the Elvis Costello puns are a joy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gc_smfc Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Golazzo podcast is great. Mixes all the old greats with current Serie A news.I believe they are doing their season round up on Wednesday.Their one offs on players are quite exceptional, too easy to forget how great cult players like Vieri, Toni and Signori were. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Gazza almost getting mauled by a lion. Might be slightly apocryphal but you uses to watch games that were seemingly eternal stalemates. Nip out the room with five minutes to go then you'd come back to catch the presenters talking a about a 2-2 thriller. Mostly BatiGOL for me though 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scary Bear Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 I loved the Saturday morning show. A bunch of us used to go to Kirkcaldy Swimming Pool for a swim and sauna. They had sun loungers in the sauna area and the telly always had Gazzetta Football Italia on when we were there. Then out for a bar lunch, then on to the Rovers, while Rovers were worth watching. Halcyon days.The games on the Sunday were generally a bit dull, with the odd classic 5-3 (Milan v ???) but I always missed the classic games. The number of bore draws was crazy. The Saturday morning highlights package was where it was at with the best bits of all the games and the talking points. I recall Batistuta scoring away at Napoli - Fiorentina were humping a shite Napoli side - then doing his trademark celebration at the corner flag, when a bottle took him out the game. Then they set fire to the seats and attacked the travelling Fiorentina fans. Standard for Napoli at the time.When Gazza signed for Rangers and would be playing at Stark’s Park I was actually excited by Scottish Football. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scary Bear Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 Brilliant thread! I remember in 1994 treating my self to a Torino home shirt I felt super cool playing 5's. Last night I watched the documentary posted previously, I must've been dreaming about it because my waking thought was "nice one gazetta Italia is on" quite disappointing when I realised it wasn't.I had an Inter Milan top for 5s. The number of Fiorentina tops going about was incredible. Batistuta was a hero. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brummie Clyde Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 Mad that they had players like Toldo, Cafu, Rui Costa and Fiorentina. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scary Bear Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 Mad that they had players like Toldo, Cafu, Rui Costa and Fiorentina.Did Cafú play for Fiorentina? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highlandcowden Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 On 25/05/2019 at 20:40, nsr said: The only thing I didn't enjoy about GFI was the constant appearances of Gazza and Ince. Obviously they were aiming at a majority English audience but Italian football was interesting enough on its own and neither of them were particularly enlightening characters. absolutely-gazza was just a pitiful attention seeker, ince a man so dull he invented a nickname for himself it was great having GFI on the council telly but I preferred Skys coverage of it immediately after italia 90(it helped that season 90/91 was a classic,decided by one of the great games) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7-2 Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 1 hour ago, Scary Bear said: a bar lunch Now that's an expression I haven't heard for years. For some reason bar lunch always makes me think of scampi and chips. The memory and brain can play strange games at times. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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