Ric Flair Posted 23 September 2005 Share Posted 23 September 2005 Does anyone think that Italian Football is odd? I've always liked watching it, love it infact. But i've recently been reading alot about it and teams get demoted leagues for all sorts such as financial problems. Napoli are currently in Serie C and not long ago Fiorentina were duimped in to Serie C1 (which is about the equivalent of the conference I think) They also have alot of match fixing, attendances are poor for many clubs even Juventus who only get an average of 26,000 fans. One of the biggest mockeries aswell is the fact that players swap clubs all the while, many top stars in Italy have played for about 5 or 6 of the top teams in Italy which I find strange. I don't know how it's still regarded as one of the top leagues, I think it needs completely re-vamped. To be fair though they have had some of the best players in the world ever and still do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fez of Mahrez Posted 23 September 2005 Share Posted 23 September 2005 Have you ever read The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cisono Posted 23 September 2005 Share Posted 23 September 2005 Does anyone think that Italian Football is odd? I've always liked watching it, love it infact. But i've recently been reading alot about it and teams get demoted leagues for all sorts such as financial problems. Napoli are currently in Serie C and not long ago Fiorentina were duimped in to Serie C1 (which is about the equivalent of the conference I think) They also have alot of match fixing, attendances are poor for many clubs even Juventus who only get an average of 26,000 fans. One of the biggest mockeries aswell is the fact that players swap clubs all the while, many top stars in Italy have played for about 5 or 6 of the top teams in Italy which I find strange. I don't know how it's still regarded as one of the top leagues, I think it needs completely re-vamped. To be fair though they have had some of the best players in the world ever and still do. Indeed, it is rather odd from a British standpoint. Seems quite normal to me The relegation race started "a few" seasons ago only, it wasn't around before. Being used to what serie A and B looked like when I was a kid, they look very strange to me now, with some big teams in such low leagues I have always ignored (such as serie C1 Girone B, currently, poor Napoli fans - but it looks as if they may be coming back up this season). I have kind of given up trying to remember which team is in which league, but Fiorentina nearly "closed down" a few years back. Seems as if they are back in serie A now though: http://it.sports.yahoo.com/football/seriea...l_standing.html Many of my Italian friends have Sky Sports and watch matches on telly every single night, but hardly ever go to matches (particularly if they support a team playing from another town). Not sure if that explains the poor attendances, but high ticket prices have also been blamed (same as here). As to the players switching teams all the time, it is probably due to the laws of offer and demand... also, some players have rows with their gaffer (heard Del Piero was a bit in trouble in August) and even the fans - in these kinds of situations, they just pick up and go elsewhere. They are usually welcome back (or by another big team) a season later or so, particularly if they have been playing well This is the Italian way... lots of shouting, lots of fights... occasionally, the players stop talking to the press, and that normally leads to better play (see the now legendary incident when the national team used a media silence to complain about how they were portrayed/treated and ended up winning the World Cup in the process!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Flair Posted 23 September 2005 Author Share Posted 23 September 2005 Indeed, it is rather odd from a British standpoint. Seems quite normal to me The relegation race started "a few" seasons ago only, it wasn't around before. Being used to what serie A and B looked like when I was a kid, they look very strange to me now, with some big teams in such low leagues I have always ignored (such as serie C1 Girone B, currently, poor Napoli fans - but it looks as if they may be coming back up this season). I have kind of given up trying to remember which team is in which league, but Fiorentina in serie C? Since when? http://it.sports.yahoo.com/football/seriea...l_standing.html Many of my Italian friends have Sky Sports and watch matches on telly every single night, but hardly ever go to matches (particularly if they support a team playing from another town). Not sure if that explains the poor attendances, but high ticket prices have also been blamed (same as here). As to the players switching teams all the time, it is probably due to the laws of offer and demand... also, some players have rows with their gaffer (heard Del Piero was a bit in trouble in August) and even the fans - in these kinds of situations, they just pick up and go elsewhere. They are usually welcome back (or by another big team) a season later or so, particularly if they have been playing well This is the Italian way... lots of shouting, lots of fights... occasionally, the players stop talking to the press, and that normally leads to better play (see the now legendary incident when the national team used a media silence to complain about how they were portrayed/treated and ended up winning the World Cup in the process!). Fiorentina are back in Serie A now but they went down to Serie C in 2002 I think and got moved back up to Serie B from the authorities (not sure why) they then won a play-off against Perugia to get back in to Serie B in 2003/04. Are you Italian??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Flair Posted 23 September 2005 Author Share Posted 23 September 2005 Have you ever read The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss? Nope, is it good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CasinoGee Posted 23 September 2005 Share Posted 23 September 2005 Italian football is incredibly corrupt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thracian Posted 23 September 2005 Share Posted 23 September 2005 Does anyone think that Italian Football is odd? I've always liked watching it, love it infact. But i've recently been reading alot about it and teams get demoted leagues for all sorts such as financial problems. Napoli are currently in Serie C and not long ago Fiorentina were duimped in to Serie C1 (which is about the equivalent of the conference I think) They also have alot of match fixing, attendances are poor for many clubs even Juventus who only get an average of 26,000 fans. One of the biggest mockeries aswell is the fact that players swap clubs all the while, many top stars in Italy have played for about 5 or 6 of the top teams in Italy which I find strange. I don't know how it's still regarded as one of the top leagues, I think it needs completely re-vamped. To be fair though they have had some of the best players in the world ever and still do. Never watched Italian football live but it's certainly an eccentric place Italy (though I love it to bits). When I last went which was many years ago they gave us sweets as part of the change. They also had a railway strike but instead of returning all locos to the depot as they would do here they just stopped at the appointed time and the crew got off. A bit disconcerting seeing as we were on top of a viaduct but it did show they had a sense of (black) humour!. Italians believe too they know all about cars and can always make em work. We got proof cos when I was based in Bologna doing some squash coaching my motor broke down. Totally unflustered my hosts just said "no worry, use one of our cars while you're here and so it worked out. There was always a vehicle on hand - either the hosts, his wife's, his brother's whatever. However it became a bit of a worry as the weeks passed and my car remained untouched in the car park and my friends just shrugged and said "don't worry, we sort it". Finally on the day of departure a small clan of Italians gathered beside the car trying to make it work without any success until someone simply poured petrol over the carburetter. It's a long time ago to recall precisely but either someone turned the ignition or they simply struck a match underneath the bonnet to ignite the fuel. Whatever, there was certainly a flame, the car burst into life and we headed back to Calais. It was the strangest thing as it transpired because although we stopped many times on the way back (including for the ferry) turning the ignition on and off each time, once we got home to Leicestershire and I parked in my father's drive that car never went again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thracian Posted 23 September 2005 Share Posted 23 September 2005 Italian football is incredibly corrupt. It's not just the football. IN GOD'S NAME is a book which lifts the lid on a truly remarkable and far-reaching tale of Italian corruption involving the Vatican Bank, The Mafia, The Freemasons and the murder of a guy on Blackfriars Bridge in London. Don't know if it's still in production but what a cracking read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rincewind Posted 23 September 2005 Share Posted 23 September 2005 Fiction or Non-fiction? I dont think you mean this one do you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Royston. Posted 23 September 2005 Share Posted 23 September 2005 Italian football was better about ten years ago. Too much money ruined it and is responsible for its current sorry state. The English Premiership is going the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fez of Mahrez Posted 29 September 2005 Share Posted 29 September 2005 Nope, is it good? Sorry, just remembered this topic. Yeah it's a fantastic book, I read a lot of football books but this is probably the best of all I've read (closely followed by Barca: A People's Passion by Jimmy Burns, to recommend another). Joe McGinniss is an American crime writer who got into "soccer" during USA '94 and decided to spend a year with Castel di Sangro, a team that had risen up from the national level of Italian football to represent its village of just 5,000 people in Serie B. The book focuses on their season in Serie B and whether they can achieve "la salvezza" by avoiding relegation back to Serie C1. It really gives you an insight into how Italian football works. A Season with Verona by Tim Parks is another good book as far as Italian football goes but unfortunately seems to contain some apologist racist leanings. Sorry for going slightly off-topic, as far as Italian football goes - as someone who's followed it quite closely since the days of Football Italia on Channel 4, I've often found conversations about Italian football to be like banging my head against a brick wall, coming up against the same clichés time and time again ("technically brilliant", "boring", "defensive") and it'd be nice to have the same conversation with some of those people today given that the Premiership is more boring now than Italian football has ever been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benji Posted 29 September 2005 Share Posted 29 September 2005 i used to watch the live match on channel 4 with the bald bloke presenting it those were the days goooooooalachiooooooooooo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anish Posted 29 September 2005 Share Posted 29 September 2005 i used to watch the live match on channel 4 with the bald bloke presenting it those were the days goooooooalachiooooooooooo same here, those were the days! James Richardson and Kenneth Wolstenholme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomassi Posted 29 September 2005 Share Posted 29 September 2005 gazza with his bit on the side awesome stuff i loved the over-the-top celebrations et al Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SystonFox Posted 30 September 2005 Share Posted 30 September 2005 football italia is regularly on channel "bravo" with james richardson presenting . me and my dad went to see inter vs roma at the san siro a few yrs back when we were i n meeeelan. it was a very boring game and not much atmosphere. the stadia was nice though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomassi Posted 30 September 2005 Share Posted 30 September 2005 football italia is regularly on channel "bravo" with james richardson presenting . me and my dad went to see inter vs roma at the san siro a few yrs back when we were i n meeeelan. it was a very boring game and not much atmosphere. the stadia was nice though. an AC Milan match is a totally different experience!! i went to watch Ac Milan vs Sampdoria in March 2004, the atmosphere was electric, flares everywhere, tons on flags and even when milan scored sampdoria fans were still going crazy!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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