devilish
Juventus fan who used to support United
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2002
- Messages
- 62,928
It's a case of other teams catching up quickly rather than the Italian league going massively backwards? It seems like they've been coasting about by the sounds of it.
Its one way to see it. Italian clubs were traditionally built around their owner. The owner would buy the club, employ his men and pay the bills. Success usually reflected the person's ability to manage. For example when the rich Turinese family Agnelli wanted to launch Fiat they went on buying Turin's second club of the time and made it successful. Juventus success, became Agnelli's success and people bought Fiat because it was the Italian car owned by the same people who brought a relatively smallish club among Europe greats. Same trick was utilized few decades after by Berlusconi with AC Milan. He bought AC Milan, he made it successful and everyone associated Berlusconi to hardwork and success. Such model served Silvio well both in business and at political level. I mean who would you prefer as prime minister? The grumpy old beurocrat who had never worked anywhere else apart from within a political party or this ambitious and rich self made man who seem able to turn everything he touches into gold?
Under such condition, its evident that many owners couldn't care less in investing in infrastructure. Why would Berlusconi invest in a new stadium when he could buy Van Basten which in turn could guarantee him 2-3 league titles and therefore boost his and his companies image?
Things started getting messy when
1- the EPL clubs started tapping the TV rights. It meant that players had more options were to go
2- Clubs from smallish leagues (South American, French, German and Dutch etc) where starting to become wiser. Which meant the Italian league lost its cheap and quality source of talent (in 1995 Inter bought 3-5 SA players including Roberto Carlos and Javier Zanetti for a pittance).
3- The Parmalat and Cirio Scandal which dragged Parma and Lazio down shook Italian football to its core, forcing it to become more accountable. High level of Debt weren't tolerated anymore.
4- The calciopoli scandal tarnished the Serie A reputation even further
5- The recession hit the owners businesses which in turn hindered their spending power. These rich people started not affording their luxury toys anymore
The Serie A is the middle of a transition period. Where historical owners are either selling their clubs or at least they are changing their strategies (investing on the infrastructure and the youths). There's not much money in the Serie A these days (poor stadium attendence) which makes it difficult for the truly rich foreign owners to invest in them.