Perhaps no-one will take it. It's not all that exciting after all (this shows in the fact that even the Championship is attended by more people), it's dogged by hooliganism and corruption. Every time I flick over to it, the grounds seem to be half empty. If you want your foreign football fix, there's always Sky's Spanish football and, if they want to give another foreign league a go, they should maybe go to Germany. It's the most popular league, attendance-wise, in Europe.
The days are long gone when the Italian League is a source of fascination to your ordinary British fan
The Italian league has always been slow and defensively focussed, channel 5 must have been aware of this. The main draw to the league has always been the big names that play there.
When David Platt, Incey and Gazza played there, I was interested - now, who really cares? I can watch the best players in the world in the premier league.
Well, it depends what people are interested in. Personally, I find the style of football played in Italy to be the best in the world. I don't need British players there to want to watch it. I much prefer Serie A to La Liga or the Premiership although I watch all three.
We'd better have some channel to get Serie A or I'll be gutted, let's face it the coverage couldn't be any worse than it was on channel 5.
It would be footballing travesty if no one picks up Serie A this season. In a league where at least five teams will be pushing for the title, the likes of Juve, Milan, Inter, Roma & Fiorentina all battling it out with star players should make for an enthralling spectacle. Serie A has out-scored other Euro leagues for three years running and the old and tired nonsense about Italian footie being defensive are SO out-dated. The likes of Roma and Fiorentina have played with formations and attacking flair that now, other European teams are implementing. There are many factors why the attendance is not there, one of the main ones is the fact that when you buy Italian Sky TV you get ALL games Live. This was an error in my view as fans did not have to travel to the games, instead choosing to watch their team week in week out from the comfort of their front rooms. Also, culture has a huge impact on football, to be fair Ive lived in the UK all my life, and apart from football, there's nothing else to do or follow. For instance, all summer Ive been waiting for it to end, so I could watch the Premiership begin, I'm sure most Italians are still at the beaches soaking up sunshine and not worrying about Serie A starting. In the UK, pubs, drinking and football carve their way together into English culture unlike other Euro countries. It makes sense that someone on here says Germany has the second biggest attendances, another large beer drinking country. As for Channel 5, I thought the whole thing was ill-conceived from the beginning, the set, the presenter, the air-head Italian girl...everything! If only someone has the bottle and bring back James Richardson and give the whole thing a makeover then it might work. Before Sky Sports TOTALLY re-invented how we watch football in the UK, the English league was about as exciting as going to Blackpool for your hols. Sky pumped millions of pounds into it and wrapped it in bright blinking fairy lights and we've been hypnotised ever since. If you look through all the flashing lights though, you will find a league that, apart from two, three teams is void of any technical or classy football. I would like to see the BBC get involved with it as they have lost loads of sport deals lately to other companies including the cricket and it could be a good juxtapose for them. It would tie in nicely with two Italian coaches taking charge of England and Rep of Ireland. Well, we can only dream.
Just read a statement by James Richardson saying that the deal to show serie A on setanta has hit a last minute hitch due to uk websites showing games on free to air basis.
hi all i disappointed to hear that noone has taken the rights to show serie a after channel 5 dropped it after one season. does anyone know sites to watch it on the internet
Originally posted by factsnotfiction: There are many factors why the attendance is not there, one of the main ones is the fact that when you buy Italian Sky TV you get ALL games Live.
I'm sure most Italians are still at the beaches soaking up sunshine and not worrying about Serie A starting. In the UK, pubs, drinking and football carve their way together into English culture unlike other Euro countries. It makes sense that someone on here says Germany has the second biggest attendances, another large beer drinking country.
Before Sky Sports TOTALLY re-invented how we watch football in the UK, the English league was about as exciting as going to Blackpool for your hols. Sky pumped millions of pounds into it and wrapped it in bright blinking fairy lights and we've been hypnotised ever since.
On the first poiunt here, I always thought Italians were passionate about their football. Giving up going to watch your team doesn't really suggest that there's too much passion around. I would suggest the fact that Italian grounds, to the neutral observer, are lawless places full of missile throwing hooligans who like nothing better than a good old punch up with the Police.
I know a lot of people like a drink when they go to football here, but to put this down to a drop in attendances in Italy makes no sense whatsoever. I am totally at a loss to think why a drinking culture either here or in Germany would make football any less popular to attend in Italy. And Germany has the highest attended league in Europe, not the second.
And, finally, please don't think that Sky single-handedly saved football. The realisation that hooliganism, the European ban and decaying grounds were holding the game back was what saved the game here. I'm not sure how old you are or if you ever attended games in the late 70's to mid-80's, but to really experience what being a spectator was like then, you'll understand why football had to wake up. It was really Heysel and Hillsboro that amde people wake up to this fact.
Just one more thing. The English game's popularity exploded after the World Cup in 1990 and the first division chairmen at the time decided to cash in on this popularity and sell its soul to Sky (by the way, I do think that Sky's production values are very high and have taught a good lesson to a lot of the TV companies out there in how to market the game)
This Season it's a marvellous Serie A with the medium size teams having strenghtened a lot and being difficult opposition especially at home. There is also a new breed of tactical coaches bring a breath of fresh air to the proceedings.
I had noticed that the goals were shown on Eurogoals, as the Week 1 goals were shown as well. And usually they only showed the written results, without images. However they are not showing any live matches. But what happened with Setanta?
