John Foot is a distinguished historian of modern Italy. He has written an acclaimed standard history of Italian football. In this week's Sunday Times he laments the state of Italian football after the country's failure to qualify for the World Cup group games.
It seems to me that a flaw in his argument is a failure to take account of the success of Italian clubs in European competitions. Italy ranks after England in terms of its Uefa coefficient.
He states: 'A few weeks ago I saw a game in San Siro in Milan. The
stadium still looks magnificent from the outside, especially at night. But
appearances can deceive. In reality this historic stadium is falling apart,
like so many others in Italy. And the experience of watching a game there is
not a good one. There is excessive security outside — a series of queues,
gates, fences, and three requests to show your tickets, as well as a body
search and an ID check.
Inside, the stairs are filthy, the stairwells are covered in
rubbish and scary looking electric wires, the toilets are horrible, and the
“seats” are fixed and plastic with no backs. The San Siro is not fit to hold
top-level games. It is one of many examples of a lack of renewal in the Italian
game, which comes from the top, and reflects the paralysis in local politics.
Italian stadiums rarely make money, they often don’t even have shops selling
merch, and they are not great places for families, or women, to attend. San
Siro has no hospitality boxes.
It loses money. In a few years time, after decades of
debate, San Siro will be demolished, but only when the new replacement stadium
next door is finished. The clock is ticking, but Italy is due to — finally —
host a major tournament (the Euros) with Turkey in 2032. Many doubt that the
new San Siro will be ready in time.
Similar issues have been evident in Rome, where two great
clubs, Roma and Lazio, still play in one crumbling, inadequate stadium. Only
Juventus, with their local power in Turin, have been able to build a modern,
money-making stadium in recent years. The contrast with the Premier League, or
La Liga, is obvious, and that gap will only get wider.
Finally, and this is often overlooked, there are the
hard-core fans, the ultràs. As Italian football has declined, the
black-shirted, bald-headed, tattooed ultrà have clung onto their power inside
and outside of those run-down stadiums.
Often controlled by organised crime (as recent trials and
investigations have shown in Milan) these “fans” hold the clubs to ransom, use
violence to get what they want, impose their wishes on the club, and often
control ticketing and merchandise.
When anyone tries to
impose some sort of rules upon them, they go on strike, as with the Lazio fans
this season, leading to some Serie A games having attendances of just 2,000.
For years, there has been talk of regulating the immense power of these — often
far-right — groups. But nothing has been done. Until the power of the ultra is
taken on directly, Italian football will never return to the glory days of the
1980s and 1990s.'
On this last point, it seems to me that violence and far right politics is as Italian as pasta and gelati. Decades ago I recall the former mayor of Firenze being assasinated.
I mentioned this to a friend in Milan and her response was: 'You don't understand our country. Sometimes these things need to happen.'
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