History:
Italian Football is a world super power within the game, they were the first to have a league with many foreign stars and with a league in the 1980’s and most of the 1990’s that far advanced any league that ever existed prior. The national team to has a great tradition with 4 World Cups (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), the only team to have won more is Brazil with 5. Along with this Italian Clubs have won 27 major European trophies, making them the most successful footballing nation in Europe. Like any super power within world football they have a certain philosophy and style of play that they have played with and developed for many decades. Their philosophy is known as ‘Catenaccio’ it’s a system that is based on a solid defensive structure, Catenaccio is used less now in the modern game but was still used by some famous coaches like Cesare Maldini, Dino Zoff and the legendary Giovanni Trapattoni who used this system in 2002 World Cup and 2004 European Championships. Catenaccio has obviously over the years developed and transformed into a different style within the modern game, but Italian football clubs are renowned for there defensive style and slower style of play compared to other nations. The meaning of Catenaccio is ‘door-bolt’ and it means a highly organized and structured defensive line which is intended on preventing goals. This style of play grabbed the headlines of world football when it was successfully produced by the Inter Milan team in the 1960’s, the manager who implemented this style of play was an Argentinean called Helenio Herrera. Inter Milan were very successful with this tactic as were AC Milan in the 1960’s. The formation used for this was a 1-4-4-1 format with a sweeper playing in front of the goalkeeper and behind the defence ready the clear up any loose balls, nullify the striker or double mark one of the attacking opposition. This style of football did cause a very dull match, with lack of goals and not many attacks, but it was effective. Until the new law of offside came into the game, the old style of Catenaccio was used by most clubs in Italy, but now with the change in the rules the sweeper is deemed surplus to requirements and newer hybrid formations of this style of play have come into force now. Until the emergence of Total football this style was deemed a way of future football. But still to this day Catenaccio is philosophy that some coaches use, in the 1990’s Argentina and Cameroon used this, in the 2000’s Italy, France, Greece, Scotland, Real Madrid and even Brazil have used this to a certain degree of success.
The modern game was brought to Italy in the 1890’s by an English man named James Richardson Spensley. He set up an already existing sports club called Genoa cricket club and merged football into the club, he set up a team and became there manager, the rest is history some may say. But there is evidence that another football team was setup before Genoa football club, in 1887 a man called Edoardo Bosio, a merchant worker in the British textile industry, returned back to Italy and founded Torino football and cricket club, this club later merged with another and named themselves Internazionale Football Club Torino. The Italian Federation of Gymnastics (F.N.G.I) had organised a couple of competitions in the mid 1890’s and they were a successful, in 1898 the Federation Italienne du Football (FIF-FIGC), in that year the first National Championship was organised in the format of regional tournaments and then playoffs which was eventually won by Genoa Cricket & Football club. They were the first power in Italian football with league victories in 1899, 1900, 1902, 1903, 1904. The Italian league joined F.I.F.A in 1905 and officially moved to a league structure based in regions. Not until 1929 did a national league structure occur, the first winners were Internazionale (Inter Milan). The national league was obviously forsaken during World War II, but after the war the first team to win the National league was Torino who went on to win four in a row. But the most successful team by far in Italian league history is Juventus with 27 titles, second is AC Milan with 17 league titles, next is Internazionale with 15 titles to their name, they are known as the big three in the league.
With many of the big clubs being situated in the same city there are some big rivalries, with the Rome derby (Roma vs. Lazio), the Milan derby (AC Milan vs. Internazionale) and the Turin derby (Torino vs. Juventus) to name just a few. This can result in an intense history between fans that can lead to trouble, hooliganism in the Italian game has been rife of late. With the death of a policeman in a game between Catania and Palermo on the 2nd of February 2007 due to rioting between opposing fans, the F.I.G.C suspended all games indefinitely. Then in early November of 2007 unfortunately a Lazio fan was shot dead by a policeman which resulted in rioting in several cities and many footballing icons criticising the way Italian football was being handled, Palermo manager Francesco Guidolin said ‘Football can not last much longer like this, There will be no joy in it.’. With many stadiums not being all seater this does invoke many problems within the Italian game, English football had the same problems in the 1980’s and made drastic changes to their game with the introduction to all seater stadiums and better security within the stadium its self. This is something that the F.I.G.C is mandating a report into now to estimate the costs of this and the adverse effects that will implement upon their league. With hooliganism being rife in the leagues it is certainly required for a control to be had on the fans once they are in the stadiums and with the current stability of the game in Italy being so uncertain many issues need to be looked into before Italian football can really move on.
Italian football has been involved in many highs and lows, the highs being 4 World Cup victories and 36 European club cups. But the lowest point in their history has to be the two match fixing scandals that made a huge impact upon the game. The first scandal was in 1980 it is referred to as the ‘Totonero’ affair, this scandal was involved in match fixing. There was a full investigation into this scandal which resulted in 20 players being banned from football ranging from 3 months to 6 years, President of Milan Felice Colombo was given a lifetime ban from the game and Thomas Fabbretti of Bologna was given a year long ban. It was not just people who were prosecuted in the investigation, Milan and Lazio were demoted from Serie A, Avellino, Bologna and Perugia were deducted 5 points. Juventus were absolved, but in many opinions there is much doubt about the clubs innocence in the scandal. The ironic part of this whole affair is that Italy’s star player, Paolo Rossi of Perugia, who had his ban reduced from 3 years to 2 years, enabling him to be able to play in the 1982 World Cup, where he became top scorer in the tournament and winning the world cup in the process for Italy. Following the victory of the Italian team, it was declared that everyone associated in the match fixing affair were given an amnesty except Felice Colombo. The second investigation into match fixing is commonly known as Calciopoli or Moggiopoli within the media. It was uncovered by Italian police in May 2006, again it was the major teams that were involved, Champions Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Reggina respectively. The police had intercepted a host of telephone conversations implementing team managers and referees, the teams were accused of fixing games by making favourable selections for themselves. The one man’s name that kept being mentioned in the investigations was Luciano Moggi, General Director of Juventus from 1994-2006, he was involved in many of the telephone conversations with numerous officials in Italian football to influence certain referee appointments in certain games. Moggi later resigned as General Director of Juventus after they were declared champions in 2006, he was found guilty and banned from football for 5 years, with a further recommendation to FIGC president that he be banned for life from having a membership within the FIGC at any level. After two appeals the clubs involved were sentenced, Juventus were to be stripped of there 2005 and 2006 Titles whilst being thrown out of the champions League and relegated to Serie B with a 9 point deduction. That was the heaviest punishment dealt to any of the clubs involved in the scandal, AC Milan were deducted 8 points and made to play one home game behind close doors, Fiorentina were deducted 15 points with two home games behind close doors and kicked out of the Champions league, Lazio were deducted 3 points with two home games behind closed doors and kicked out of UEFA Cup, finally Reggina were deducted 11 points, fined £68,000 and the Chairman, Pasquale Foti, fined £20,000 and banned from football for two and a half years. Some appeals are still being processed to this day and the investigation is still on going.
The Italian league has always been one of the powers in European football, but in the past 5 years there has been a dramatic change in power. The English Premiership has signed a new television deal worth 1.7 billion pounds recently, this has made the English league the richest in the world and more money for the English clubs. This has seen much foreign talent move to the Premiership, the Spanish league and Italian league have been left behind from this, with the match fixing scandal and Italy’s biggest club, Juventus, struggling and building a new era, you could say that Italian football is in decline. But most Italians would point out the fact that the National team are current world champions and AC Milan are current world club champions, you would have to agree with their evidence.
The Italian league relies on pay-TV for around 60 to 70 per cent of its revenue, comparing to 40 to 50 per cent in the English league it is obvious to see the void in revenue, in December 2007 a new complex law passed by decree with little debate and no vote in parliament, which relates to a big shake up of broadcasting rights that will strengthen every club in Serie A and Serie B. There will be legal challenges to this and the law will not take effect until 2010-11 season.
Greatest Player:
There is not an outstanding candidate for this nomination, Italy have had many great players to name but a few, there is Luigi Riva, Gianni Rivera, Giacinto Facchetti, Dino Zoff, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini even current players like Francesco Totti. But the man that I have chosen as Italy’s greatest ever is Giuseppe Meazza, he had the San Siro named after him in his honour. Meazza has a record second to none in the Italian league he scored 245 goals in 348 games for Inter and 33 goals in 53 games for Italy, that is an amazing tally for a striker that was only 5 foot 6 inches. Born on the 23rd August 1910 in Milan, Meazza was a the first Italian footballer to be recognised worldwide, he was the first player to be personally sponsored. His strongest attributes were his leadership skills, accurate shooting, dribbling and his passing ability. He also had a controversial side, in folklore he was known to of slept in a brothel the night before home games. Meazza was top scorer in the Italian League on three different occasions (1930,1936,1938), he won three championships for Inter (1930,1938,1940) and an Italian Cup (1939). He still holds a record to this very day, he scored the most goals in Serie A on his debut season at the age of 19 with 31 goals. The year before Meazza at the age of 18 scored 38 goals in 29 games, but Serie A was not established until the following year. When he retired in the 1947 season he had scored a total of 268 goals in 443 games which is third in the all-time top scorer list in the Italian Championship.
He is one of Italy’s most successful players, he won the 1934 and 1938 World Cup, the later he was captain. One of his most famous goals was in the 1938 World Cup semi-final against Brazil, Italy were awarded a penalty with Meazza taking it and scoring, but during his run up to the ball his shorts fell down, he kept his cool and held his shorts up and still scored the penalty which sent Italy to the final. Meazza had a fantastic record for his country in goal scoring which fell in hand why Italy only lost six games during his 53 caps.
After his retirement he went on to become Internazionale manager but to no avail unfortunately with no any serious trophies won for the club. He continued to be in football until his death in Rapallo, Italy on the 21st of August 1979, he was 68 years old. He might have been in an era of old but with two World Cup victories, a goal scoring record rated with the best of them and the first recognised famous footballer Giuseppe Meazza will go down in history as one of the greatest Italian footballers of all-time.
