BT Sport provides fans of Italian football with a fantastic platform for viewing live matches, with several games aired every single weekend during the domestic campaign. Now, it seems to have pulled another delight out of the bag with a documentary due to be aired on Saturday March 31 at 10pm entitled “Golazzo: The Football Italia story.”
This will be eagerly anticipated by scores of English fans who avidly watched Serie A coverage on Channel 4 throughout the 1990’s, the TV advert for the show featuring host James Richardson in a typical setup with a copy of pink Italian football newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport and an oversized gelato (ice cream).
The series first came to our screens in 1992, the year newly-retired Francesco Totti made his debut for Roma. As a recent tweet from the Giallorossi social media team pointed out, the captain’s debut – and indeed Football Italia – was long before the iPod, the Euro, Amazon, before the series Friends started, the Channel Tunnel, the first Jurassic Park film, Google and the PlayStation.
How we lived without those things will remain a mystery, but the delight of watching superstars from a foreign league was real after the watching the newly-formed Premier League was a privilege only afforded to those who subscribed to Sky Sports.
So what can we expect from such an indulgent trip down memory lane to the golden era of Serie A?
The sports channel revealed that both Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard will be discussing their own memories of the show, as well as interviews with Paul Ince, Gianfranco Zola, Paul Elliott, Ray Wilkins, Joe Jordan and Luther Blissett who take the chance to reminisce about their playing days on the peninsula. Beppe Signori and the famous voice of commentator Peter Brackley will also feature, and of course the show’s presenter James Richardson.
“The film captures a time when Serie A was the world’s most powerful and competitive league, filled from top to bottom with colourful characters and stories,” said the inimitable Richardson in an interview for the BT Sport website. “It was a pleasure and a privilege to work on Gazzetta Football Italia back then, and it’s been a delight to revisit those glory years for this documentary.”
Perhaps most exciting of all though, is the chance to see iconic moments from the league courtesy of the show’s archives, parts of the show that have been relieved only in the memories of all who watched it for the last twenty years. The good news is that the programme – just as it was back in the 1990’s – will be free to air, with a live stream available to non-BT Sport subscribers on the BT Sport app and via BTSport.com.
