Arrivederci to the Golden Age of Italian Soccer?

20 years ago, Italian soccer was the gold standard in the soccer world. World class talents like Gianluca Vialli, Marco Van Basten, Gabriel Batistuta, and Giuseppe Signori were filling the nets in Serie A, while young talents like Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Del Piero and Francesco Totti were being nurtured and introduced both to the Italian league and Italy's international youth teams.

Not only was skill at a premium in Serie A, but so was money. Inter Milan's £32 million
purchase of Christian Vieri from Lazio in 1999 was the most expensive in history. This purchase was soon followed up by Lazio's and Juventus' spending sprees in which they acquired the services of Argentine striker Hernan Crespo and future Italian superstar goalie Gianluigi Buffon, respectively.



Gianluigi Buffon: The most expensive goalkeeper in the world to date


Yet over the last 5 years or so, the Italian game has taken a huge hit both in the realm of public opinion and on the soccer pitch itself. Replacing the aging talents of Totti, Del Piero and Maldini (who has now retired) have proven difficult. To add insult to injury, the Serie A has now lost its place as one of the elite leagues in Europe. Previously perched alongside Spain's first division, La Liga, and England's Barclay's Premier League, as the best in Europe, Serie A was knocked down a level last week. Germany's top division gained a fourth Champions League spot at the expense of Italy, who will now only have three of their top clubs representing the country in Europe's top club competition. UEFA's scientific ranking system deemed that Germany's clubs are more deserving of the fourth spot, since all the Italian sides in the Europa League have already been knocked out of the tournament, while the two remaining clubs in the Champions League, AC Milan and Inter Milan, are facing elimination with 1-0 deficits after the first leg in the Round of 16. While, Germany's Bayer Leverkusen has advanced to the Round of 16 in the Europa League and two German teams (Bayern Munich and Schalke) are in the driver's seats of their Round of 16 match-ups in the Champions League.

Italy's loss of a Champions League spot may seem like a minimal loss, yet it represents a slide of the Italian game that has been underway for the better half of a decade now. Scandal, low attendance, and a lack of evolution in the style of play threatens the competitiveness of the Italian league.

The slow digression of Serie A has been well underway for over almost a decade, but 2006 was the year that brought it into the spotlight. 2006 was a year that would highlight both the negatives and positives of the Italian Serie A. The year began with the emergence of the Calicopoli scandal, in which match fixing and referee intimidation schemes were uncovered in Italy's top league. Italian giants, such as Juventus, which is owned by the Agnelli family (also owners of Fiat) and AC Milan, which is owned by part-time Italian Prime Minister and full-time "bunga-bunga" partier Silvio Berlusconi, were seen as the main perpetuators of the scandal. The Italian football federation replied swiftly by relegating Juventus to the second division of Italian soccer and fining and deducting points from Berlusconi's AC Milan and other Serie A clubs.

The 2006 World Cup in Germany provided Italian soccer with a reason to celebrate after a dismal year. Led by a stingy defense, timely scoring and the exploits of Gigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro and the effective shenanigans of Marco Materazzi, the Italian's triumphed over France in the World Cup final. Although the soccer played by the Italian side was not the most visually appealing, Italians could care less. The golden generation of Italian soccer had finally delivered on the international stage. The success in Germany temporarily swept the real issue in Italian soccer under the rug: the continued demise of Serie A.

The Estadio Guiseppe Meazza (also known as the San Siro), one of Italy's premiere soccer stadiums, is home to Italy's current heavyweights, Internazionale and AC Milan. The arch rivals from Milan share the stadium. The mammoth and intimidating venue can hold up 85,700 soccer crazed Italians. The thought of any stadium filled with nearly 90,000 can irk any opposition. Yet visiting teams at the San Siro need not worry, the stadium seldom reaches a capacity crowd these days. Inter and AC Milan draw an average attendance of 52,000 and 44,491, respectively. Mid table clubs in Spain and England dream of attendance figures of that sort, but those numbers are far from what is expected from the two enormous clubs of Milan. Thus far for the 2010/11 season , the average Serie A match attracts 6,000 less spectators per match than Spain's La Liga, and just under 50% of the German Bundesliga's average per match (41,973).

Not exactly a sell-out just prior to kick-off to a Lazio match in Rome

So what is the cause of these dwindling numbers? The nasty environment provided by certain supporters' groups or ultras is certain to be playing a role in low attendance numbers in Italy. The idea that somehow soccer hooliganism is the true way to support your club has blossomed in the last decade and a half, despite the fact that violence in and around English stadiums has decreased since the mid 1990s. Films and television shows like Green Street Hooligans and The Real Football Factories have helped to romanticize the soccer hooligan, yet the current state of Italy's game shows that hooliganism can not only have a devastating effect on the in-game experience for fans, but it can also have a devastating effect on a club's bottom line.

Hooliganism and ultras are not limited to Italy. Russia, Ukraine and Poland are just some of the countries that are attempting to deal with their aggressive "supporters" groups. Incidents involving Italian club team supporters have often turned fatal, as in other countries. However, unlike the other countries, Italy is a long-time member of the international soccer hierarchy, with a storied past and a highly competitive domestic league. If the threat of violence continues to turn off more Italians from attending their local team's matches, Serie A could be in some real economic trouble.

Ultras at Napoli's Stadio San Paolo

Although hooliganism is a major problem in Italy, the biggest threat to the game may be the on-field product itself. The Italian league is starting to suffer from a stagnation of creativity. Although a win at all costs strategy focused on defense and grinding out a low scoring win may be commendable, in the realm of dollars and cents, it can be disastrous. Despite Inter Milan's Champions League success last year, Italian soccer has lost the flair that it was once known for. This stagnation is not from a lack of talent, since the Italian league has some of the world's best players (Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, Wesley Sneijder, Samuel Eto'o and Lucio to name just a few). Yet, despite this talent, Serie A cannot stack up to its Spanish and English equivalents in the department of entertaining football. Even Italian international Giuseppe Rossi feels that the Italian game has fallen behind its main rivals. The New Jersey born striker who opted to represent Italy knows the difference between the Italian, Spanish and English games, since he has played in all 3 leagues (for Parma, Manchester United, Newcastle United and currently with Villareal in Spain). "You're always going to watch an English game or a Spanish game before Serie A and this is because they were both able to evolve," says the 24-year old.

Giuseppe Rossi at Steve Nash's charity game in NYC

Serie A's evolution may be slower than other leagues, but if the league hopes to keep up with its competitors, it needs to improve its product now. A system focused on a defense first approach, which the Italian side used to win the 2006 World Cup, may be a way to win, but it won't attract international notoriety, something that La Liga and the EPL clubs have realized. Serie A clubs will have to realize that domestic success is great, but in the end, the market dictates what lasts. If Serie A cannot cope with the threat of violence in its stadiums and cannot produce a product that attracts fans and investment, it may be losing more than just a Champions League spot in the future.