Once the gods of football graced its pitches, now it’s a second-rate league with geriatric strikers (the A is for average)
TO understand Italian football’s curious place in the e European game’s me’s ecosystem, take Lucas Paqueta’s transfer from Lyon to West Ham last summer.
The Brazil playmaker cost the Hammers a club-record £53million — but Lyon were not the only ones who made a handsome sum. AC Milan had inserted a 15 per cent sell- on clause when they allowed Paqueta to join Lyon for £17.5m two years earlier.
AC Milan, winners of seven European Cups, 19 Serie A titles and 23 other serious trophies, celebrated a deal that did not directly involve them to keep the balance sheet healthy.
There can be no better example than the Paqueta deal of how the financial power dynamic has shifted in the last three decades. Because in football’s natural order, surely it would be West Ham benefiting from high-profile Milan transfers?
Remember the 1980s and 1990s, when Diego Maradona, Ruud Gullit, Zinedine Zidane, Andriy Shevchenko and Ronaldo were just some of the many overseas stars to play in Italy in their peak. Back then, ageing stars left Italy for England. Now they take the opposite route.
With Milan and city rivals Inter contesting a Champions League semi-final, Juventus and Roma in the last four of the Europa League and Fiorentina at the same stage of the Conference League, Serie A could still complete a clean sweep of European trophies this season. This is hardly the performance of a sub-standard league and as this season has shown, there are some fine teams in Italy — new champions Napoli above all.
The depth and quality of domestic coaches is a source of pride in Italy, where they are baffled that Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard are appointed to top jobs largely because they were famous players.
In neutral conditions and with equal resources, Italian coaches would run rings around their English counterparts.
Once we get away from the football, though, Serie A is average at best, a joke at worst. As part of Mail Sport’s exclusive interview with Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis two years ago, he was asked what Italian and English football could learn from one another. The reply was instructive.
Critical: Graeme Souness’ verdict on the Milan derby in Mail Sport
‘We Italians are the ones who need to learn from the Premier League,’ said De Laurentiis. ‘Not the other way round.’
There are more than five billion reasons behind De Laurentiis’ answer. Only the NFL and cricket’s Indian Premier League generate more in television revenue than the Premier League, who confirmed in 2021 that they would extend their £5.1billion TV deal until the end of the 2024-25 season. Serie A’s most recent TV deal was worth £2.42bn.
‘Thanks to the changes made in the 1990s, English football became a genuine industry as well as a sport,’ De Laurentiis added. ‘It’s watched all over the world and generates more than any other league. This turnover means even the smaller English clubs are more competitive than their counterparts elsewhere.’
The huge television deals mean huge wages for the global stars, and the visual spectacle of the Premier League — modern, packed-out stadiums — attracts overseas owners of unimaginable wealth. In Italy, by contrast, most of the venues have not changed since they were given a makeover for Italia ’90. They are rarely full.
Everyone appreciates the issue, but the petty jealousies and point- scoring at the heart of Italian football and politics means they have been unable to find a grand vision for how to catch up. Then there have been multiple off-field scandals. Who wants to invest serious money in a league that has to handle regular allegations of sharp practice or illegal behaviour?
Scandals aside, the other three members of Europe’s top five leagues — Spain, Germany, France — are also dwarfed by the monetary might of the Premier
I was shocked to see how bad the Italians were – this is surely City’s year to be kings of Europe
And yet Italian clubs could still sweep the board in Europe
League. Yet each of these competitions has its headline selling point: Spain has Real Madrid and Barcelona, Barcel France Kylian Mbappe and — for now at least — Lionel Messi, Germany the best matchday experience on the continent.
With Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Juventus in 2021, Italy no longer has a USP to match.
The final problem Italy faces is the most surprising — a lack of confidence. A country so proud of its food, fashion, culture and climate, Italy seems to have completely lost faith in its football.
Part of the Premier League’s success is a confidence trick, where ‘ The Best League in the World’ is now virtually an official title. Manchester City lose at home to Brentford and it is spun as an example of the high calibre across the division. If that happens in Italy, supporters and media turn on their top clubs.
Some of the football in Leicester’s 2-2 draw with Everton this month was dreadful, yet off we went again, praising the ‘great product’ of the Premier League. The equivalent 90 minutes’ action in Serie A would prompt days of hand-wringing about how far standards had fallen.
The truth is somewhere in the middle but until Italian football — winners of four World Cups and two European Championships — appreciate what they have and try to improve it, progress will continue to be slow.
A thrilling Milan derby, and victory over Real Madrid or Manchester City in the Champions League final, should be just the spark they need.