Lega Serie A – General Discussion

[Messinterista]

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There aren't any restrictions on the make up of the bench, are there?

If they were going to do this, they should at least have insisted that three of the bench be U21, or something like that.

[Messinterista]

Good suggestion red. Actually they should have done something like that with the bench of 7. Maybe with this bench of 12, there might be a minimum amount of Italian players that need to be on the bench too. Not sure, the article didn't go into too much info.

[RomaShield27]

Salaries of Serie A Clubs 2012/2013

Today Gazzetta released the wage bills of all 20 Serie A clubs of this 2012/2013 season and which player was making the most on each club. Here's the list, highest paid player in brackets:

1. Milan: 120 million [Pato 4 million]
2. Juventus: 115 million [Buffon 6 million]
3. Inter: 100 million [Sneijder 6 million]
4. Roma: 95 million [De Rossi 6 million]
5. Lazio: 66.2 million [Klose 2.1 million]
6. Napoli: 53.2 million [Cavani 4.5 million]
7. Fiorentina: 38.8 million [Jovetic 2.5 million]
8. Sampdoria: 29.8 million [Palombo 1.5 million]
9. Genoa: 28.9 million [Borriello 1.4 million]
10.Bologna: 28.4 million [Gilardino 1.2 million]
11. Atalanta: 23.7 million [Denis 1 million]
12. Palermo: 23.4 million [Miccoli 1.2 million]
13. Torino: 22 million [Bianchi 1.3 million]
14. Udinese: 21.2 million [Di Natale 1.3 million]
15. Parma: 21.2 million [Amauri 1 million]
16. Siena: 18.9 million [D'Agostino 800k]
17. Catania: 18 million [Andujar 600k]
18. Chievo: 15.9 million [Pellissier 800k]
19. Cagliari: 15.9 million [Conti 750k]
20. Pescara: 10.8 million [Celik 400k]

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Incredible that Milan manage to have the highest wage bill despite having so few good players.

[Messinterista]

Napoli are doing well considering they are not spending as much as those teams ahead of them.

[DCGweez]

[Messinterista]

How to reform Italian football…

Various club Presidents have ideas to restructure the Italian game. David Swan puts some of their suggestions under the microscope.

Saturday’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport featured a report that asked a number of Serie A Presidents and owners to offer three ideas each that they would like to see implemented in Italian football, in a week where FIGC President Giancarlo Abete stated his desire to see Serie A return to 18 teams. Here, we analyse some of the more interesting options and their viability.

Introduce B teams into the professional system (Fiorentina owner Andrea Della Valle)

A call that you hear often in England has started to seep through to Italy, possibly due to the success of Spain, where this has been present for years.

Della Valle’s reasoning was that B teams would be made up primarily of young players and allow them a greater chance of growing by playing against pros and not youngsters of the same age.

A large part of the feeling on this will depend on the extent to which you believe youth football in Italy ‘works’. Italy Coach Cesare Prandelli now has a number of young players to pick from across the squad, many of whom, though not all, started in the youth teams of Serie A clubs, so the system is not all bad.

The Lega Pro may hold the key to this being introduced at any point in the future. The third tier of Italian football has just been reduced to 60 teams due to so many clubs struggling to stay afloat financially, but Lazio President Claudio Lotito openly pondered whether there were 60 teams that could maintain competitiveness over a season. If he turns out to be right, and if more struggle to keep their position, the option of B teams filling the spaces could become viable.

Introduce UEFA’s Financial Fair Play into Serie A (Andrea Della Valle and Torino President Urbano Cairo)

The two who suggested this felt it was a necessary step to balance the League. The glaring problem is that while it will give many teams a greater chance of competing near the top, it will place the top clubs competing in Europe at a competitive disadvantage relative to the rest – not something Serie A needs at the moment.

It represents a conflict for both the FIGC and the Lega. They would probably love a competitive and balanced League, but if it comes to the detriment of Italy on the European stage then it is difficult to see how this would help in the long-term.

Reduce Serie A and Serie B to 18 teams (Lazio President Claudio Lotito)

An increasingly popular idea, with backing from the very top after Abete expressed his wish to see Serie A reduced to 18 teams.

Parma President Tommaso Ghirardi suggested something similar, though his idea was to keep Serie A at 20 teams and reduce Serie B to 20, from 22.

Just by looking at Ghirardi's counter-suggestion, you can see this is going to be difficult to pass. Clubs unsure of their Serie A status on a yearly basis, or who could get drawn into trouble, are going to fight a reduction at the top level that limits the number of opportunities to generate more revenue from a presence in Italy's best League.

But the biggest issue with the idea in the short-term is the new TV deal. Sky have paid a lot of money to show every single Serie A game live for the next three seasons and a reduction in the number of teams means fewer games for TV.

As such, do not expect to see this implemented until after 2014-15. But with the backing of the man at the top, and a number of Presidents, there is a very good chance of change occurring within both Serie A, from 2015 onwards, and Serie B.

Stop broadcasting every match on TV (Urbano Cairo)

Often ignored as one of the reasons for the bad attendances in Serie A, with the focus instead on the quality of the stadia. The fact is that, leaving the stadia aside, fans in Italy do not actually need to go to a ground to watch football. With every match screened live they only need to find a bar showing it or take out a subscription themselves.

Cairo referenced the "English model", but did not specify whether he wanted a protected kick-off time, as England has with the traditional Saturday 3pm matches.

Again, this comes back to the TV deal. Protecting kick-off times like the Premiershit will undoubtedly see Sky substantially reduce the amount they pay to screen Serie A matches. What they offer now is crucial in keeping some clubs in business – both in Serie A and below thanks to the parachute payments and mutuality agreement that filters down to Lega Pro and the amateurs in Serie D – and a reduction in that could hit them hard financially.

With the stadia owned by local councils, driving fans towards the ground is not going to make up for the loss of TV revenue. Once the clubs have done the maths, it is unlikely many of them will be in favour of this.

Source: http://www.football-italia.net/27768/ho ... l%E2%80%A6

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The 'B' teams sound like a decent idea, similar to how Barcelona and Real Madrid have their B Teams in the second division of Spain.
However, we definitely need to knock down the amount of clubs from 20 to 18, even if it means we have to wait until 2015.

[Messinterista]

Italian transfer wrap

Italy's Serie A was a hive of activity during the 2013 January transfer window. Tony Palumbo looks at which players moved where and whether or not it will have a significant bearing on the championship.

AC Milan picked up one of the biggest, most volatile names in football with the capture of Mario Balotelli. Milan lost Alexandre Pato, but gained utility player Cristian Zaccardo from Parma and defender Bartosz Salamon from Brescia, beating an offer from Zenit St Petersburg.

Juventus has signed Nicolas Anelka, greeted with scepticism by most commentators. It tried, in vain, to get Ishak Belfodil from Parma and had to settle for Federico Peluso.

Napoli lost two expert players – Salvatore Aronica and Andrea Dossena- and signed Pablo Armero from Udinese, Emanuele Calaio from Siena, young Serbian Josip Radosevic, and Rolando on loan from Porto, where he has been kept on the sidelines for the whole season.

Inter Milan let young Brazilian forward Phillipe Coutinho go, to Liverfekkin'wankscum, for $11 million dollars, but was very active in acquiring new players. Young Mateo Kovacic, 18-years-old, cost $12 million. Zdravko Kuzmanovic is a defender who knows Italian football very well, having played in Serie A earlier in his career. Other additions are defender Ezequiel Schelotto from Atalanta and goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo from Lazio.

Fiorentina has signed from PSG former Juventus player Mohamed Sissoko, possibly the best of its new players, the others being Matias Vecino and Marcelo Larrondo.

Palermo, surprisingly in the relegation zone, has signed no less than ten players. Andrea Dossena, from Napoli, has already established himself as a top attacking full-back. Another former Napoli player, Salavatore Aronica, is trying to tighten up a leaky defence. Chievo 'keeper Stefano Sorrentino has been recruited to aid this cause.

Genoa, as usual, has taken advantage of the January window to change its squad substantially. The newcomers are Floro Flores for the forward line, Matuzalem, Ruben Olivera and Marco Rigoni in midfield as well as Eros Pisano, Thomas Manfredini, Mattia Cassani and Daniele Portanova in defence.

Parma strengthened its defence, signing McDonald Mariga from Inter and Rodney Strasser from Milan.

Siena has lost top players like Calaio, but acquired Nicola Pozzi and Francesco Della Rocca, not enough to avoid certain relegation.

Pescara has signed three players - Guiseppe Sculli, Luciano Zauri and Gaetano D’Agostino - who will try to resurrect their careers with the promoted club.

Torino has given its coach, Giampiero Ventura, the player he wanted in Brazilian forward Barreto. That takes the number of players in the Torino squad to have previously worked with Ventura to six.

Atalanta hopes to have found in Igor Budan a good alternative to German Denis. It has also strengthened its defence with Cristiano Del Grosso, Michele Canini, Franco Brienza and Matteo Contini.

Chievo looks to have lost a lot in its goalkeeper exchange with Palermo of Stefano Sorrentino for Samir Ukajini. It could be the difference between Chievo retaining its Serie A status and being relegated to Serie B.

Bologna, Catania, Cagliari, Udinese and Sampdoria have been fairly quiet on the transfer market. I wonder whether they will be the real winners at the end of the season.

Source: http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/113 ... nsfer-wrap

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BT to buy ESPN UK:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21577676

No mention of what impact that may have on Serie A coverage in the UK.

[RomaShield27]

Yeah, was just reading about that, Red, and wondering how it will effect the great Serie A coverage. Doesnt mention anything about Serie A, only Bundesliga. Dont think I get BT over here, or if I can i'll likely have to pay extra for it.

Surprised at this, ESPN UK is a great channel, not only for the calcio they show but also other sports. I also would have though ESPN UK would have lots of money, surprised they were bought out.

http://www.btlife.bt.com/entertainment/ ... -business/

[red]

Once ESPN lost the right to show EPL games there was always a good chance they'd give up. Don't know what sort of viewing figures/advertising revenues they get from a lot of what they show.

Possible that ESPN's contract to show Serie A games was up this summer, so hasn't been included in the deal.

[RomaShield27]

Fuck, that could be it alright. I thought ESPN UK would be in a good position financially as its (presumably) owned by ESPN US, which is a huge corporation. But yeh maybe its ratings or whatever were not doing well. But I know BT is the new kid on the block with of lots of money. Fuckers better show Serie A. At least Ill still have Setanta.

ESPN UK still do show the odd EPL game, right? They do over here, anyway, usually the late afternoon kick-offs on Saturdays. Will be a shame to lose it.

[RomaShield27]

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=108

Lots of info on it on digital spy forums. Looks like ESPNUK were planning on selling up for quite a while now.

Interesting that BT will operate 'at least one ESPN branded channel' - which is not ESPN Classic, as that is not part of the deal.

Also seen someone mention that BT will cover Serie A but not confirmed.


ESPN in UK rights sell off talks
http://www.a516digital.com/2013/02/espn ... talks.html

Sports broadcaster ESPN is reportedly in talks to sell its UK sports rights as speculation over the future of its UK channels mount. ESPN lost out on Premiershit Football and other rights following BT's entry to the sports rights market last year.

According to a report in Broadcast today, the broadcaster is now in negotiations with other parties, thought to include BT and Sky, to sell its remaining rights to events including FA Cup and SPL matches.

This could indicate that ESPN's channels might close at the end of the football season. ESPN has been on air in its current format since 2009, when it acquired numerous sports rights following Setanta's collapse in June of that year.

On digital terrestrial TV, the main ESPN channel is broadcast on channel 34. There is ongoing uncertainty over the future of ESPN and the BT-hosted Sky Sports channels delivered alongside the Freeview signal, with BT last month announcing that it would restrict sports channel subscriptions to viewers with BT Infinity broadband, through which BT Vision will broadcast a package of pay TV channels from later this year.

Top Up TV currently offers ESPN alongside the BT hosted Sky Sports channels to subscribers. It could be left without any channels unless it announces new carriage deals.

ESPN has refused to comment on the matter.

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[RomaShield27]

I see.

BT's website says it covering Serie A when its launched in the summer: "Hundreds of top-flight football matches from Italy, France and Brazil"

https://www.btsport.com

[red]

Good stuff.

[soccergurl1989]

[DCGweez]

I'm surprised Palacio is that far down the line in terms of goals per minute.

Good stuff, thanks for posting.

[DCGweez]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... CMP=twt_gu