Yet more match-fixing allegations signal yet another low for Italian football. A low of such proportions that has led to Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti pondering the merits of suspending the (once) beautiful game in a country which sees football as an integral part of its culture. It is even shaped like a boot kicking a ball, after all.
Off the field, it is safe to say that Italian football has always struggled to avoid controversy. But suspend it? Is this what it has come to?
To make matters worse, only a short time ago, it was oh so good. In the glory years of the 1990s, they were the Kings of Europe, if not quite the world. There were Italian representatives in every European Cup/Champions League final apart from 1991 and 1999 while in the Uefa Cup, there were 12 Italian finalists, 4 all-Italian finals and 7 Italian winners.
It was an unrivalled period of dominance which neither the Premier League nor La Liga, now considered the top dogs, have been able to come close to matching.
Forever criticised for being too defensive, defences were no slacker in the 90s from the days of catenaccio by which Italian football was characterised in the early 20th century. Surely, then, that only made the incredible goalscoring feats of the likes of Batistuta, Balbo and Van Basten all the more impressive?
The wonderful array of Italian attackers, particularly trequartistas (think Baggio, Del Piero, Zola, Mancini, Chiesa and later Totti), made a mockery of the cautious tactics employed at the time by the national team. Quality goalkeepers and defenders were never in short supply – with a more adventurous approach the feeling is they could have achieved much more than a solitary World Cup final in 1994.
Serie A, in short, was where the best players in the world wanted to play, with a heavy German contingent arriving following their World Cup triumph on Italian soil in 1990, joining the Dutch trio of Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard who had already helped to mould AC Milan into the best club side in the world. They were followed by Zidane, Ronaldo, Cafu, Thuram and Desailly to name but a few. How many genuine world-class players who are in their prime can Serie A boast today? Sneijder, Buffon and possibly Ibrahimovic.
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As a consequence, Italy was home to the best teams. Not only did we see the traditional heavyweights from Milan and Rome, along with Juventus, battle it out at the top but also smaller teams such as the Fiorentina of Batistuta and Rui Costa, the Parma team including Zola, Asprilla and Brolin and, of course, the Sampdoria side led by Mancini and Vialli who clinched the title in 1991. It was difficult to predict a top six at the beginning of the season – the way football should be.
So where did it all go wrong? The departures of Zidane and Ronaldo in the early 2000s and the improvement in the English and Spanish leagues, largely due to an improvement in finances, heralded the end of the cycle. The succession of scandals which followed, headed by Calciopoli in 2006 and supplemented by ongoing corruption claims, has left Italian football’s reputation at an all-time low.
And it is this reputation which desperately needs to be restored, with recent studies showing that Italian clubs are losing enormous amounts of money as a result of empty stadiums with fans disillusioned with the state of the game. Money talks in football, and it is imperative the Italian football authorities can find a way to clean up the game and entice fans back through the gates if they have designs on dominating on the continent once more.
How can this be done? Maybe suspending all official football isn’t such a drastic proposal after all? Would it give Italy the kick up the backside it needs? If history is anything to go by, then it is certain that tougher punishments must be introduced or there will be no end.
Life bans, prison sentences or even a global ban on betting on Italian football? This will only be the first step to restoring the game’s reputation. A reputation, which, only 20 years ago, was riding the crest of a wave. And perhaps striving for the return to the good old days is as good a way as any to help inspire its comeback.
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