Italian football used to have it all. Brought to UK viewers by James Richardson’s unmistakable and irrepressible style, Serie A in the 1990s delivered a heady mix of star players, charismatic coaches and crazy owners. From Roberto Baggio’s ponytail and Edmundo’s drunk monkey (look it up) to Faustino Asprilla’s somersaults, there was something for everyone as colourful, vibrant teams like Parma, Fiorentina and Sampdoria shone alongside the traditional powerhouses of AC Milan, Juventus and Inter.
In recent years it lost some of its lustre to a wider audience, but for those who still regularly opt for Calcio rather than the Premier League or La Liga, much of what made it great is still there. This past season saw some great goals scored, the prestigious Milanese giants both battled to regain San Siro’s previous allure, while small teams like Benevento, Crotone and SPAL provided incredible stories in the relegation battle. At the other end of the table, Napoli played sumptuous football while trying to prevent Juve making history with seven consecutive Scudetti, the two protagonists in the most entertaining title race on the continent.
Serie A is slowly rebuilding, with Sassuolo, Udinese, Cagliari and Atalanta the first to follow in Juve’s footsteps and build their own modern stadiums. AS Roma are working hard to follow suit, while forward-thinking ownership groups have taken the helm at many clubs, dragging them kicking and screaming into the 21st century and leaving others firmly in the dark ages.
Last season’s final league table (shown in the tweet below) neatly reflects that, the top half filled with well organised clubs who are aiming for Europe, and an intriguing relegation battle between four sides who fought right until the end.
Therefore, when looking at the biggest issues facing the peninsula’s top flight, the problem lies not at the top or the bottom, but firmly in the middle. Lying there is a vast expanse of tedious mediocrity, the likes of Genoa, Udinese, Chievo and Bologna never troubling the Europa League contenders yet comfortably avoiding the drop. This was never the case in the 90s when Serie A had just 18 teams and four relegation spots, something which sadly – because those same clubs would never vote for it – is unlikely to ever return.
So we are left dealing with a group of sides that by midseason are already irrelevant. Not even the die-hard followers of Italian football are unlikely to tune in to watch a Chievo-Udinese game in February, and that’s without even considering the dreadfully turgid playing style they served up in 2017/18.
Indeed, Sassuolo scored the fewest goals (29), Bologna took less shots than any other team (9.4 per game), Chievo made the least number of take-ons (5.4) and Cagliari made the most fouls (16.1). That’s certainly cherry-picking some statistics, but when considering that Benevento and Hellas Verona were historically bad – managing just 21 and 25 points respectively – yet they still did all those things better than teams who remain in the top flight highlights just how stale and stagnant this middle ground has become.
This underscores the infuriating point that at least the teams who went down did so while trying to play and entertain, while these teams are besieged by a malaise that shows no sign of abating, simply stumbling along doing just enough to scrape by.
Even their own supporters don’t want to watch them, with their average attendances plummeting year after year. Udinese (17,906) Cagliari (14,685), Chievo (12,540) and Sassuolo (11.237) were watched by fewer fans per week than Portsmouth (17,916), despite the English club sitting eighth in English football’s third tier and missing out on even a playoff berth.
Half-empty stadiums harm the reputation of the league, the colour, passion and vibrancy once so synonymous with Serie A unlikely to be found at the Bentegodi when Chievo are at home for example, Verona’s second side never coming close to filling the cavernous bowl that holds over 38,000 seats. That their largest attendance (against Juve in January) saw 15,000 of those remain empty shows just how dire the situation is, with the table above highlighting an issue affecting the entire division, but one which shows these same mid-table sides as the worst culprits.
Yet there is perhaps reason for hope on the horizon. SPAL managed to survive playing good football and are a well-organised club off the field, traits which can also be seen in Empoli and Parma who have secured a place in the top flight for next season. Venezia and Frosinone – two sides in the Serie B playoffs for the third promotion berth – can be added to that list with the latter already owning a new purpose-built stadium and the former controlled by ambitious American Joe Tacopina.
With the emergence of such clubs, hopefully the ailing sides who exist only to cling on their mid-table status can be squeezed out and a bright new era can be ushered in. Who knows, maybe one day soon there will capacity crowds and a league filled with teams that people actually want to watch. It’s happened in Serie A before, just ask James Richardson…
