There was a time when Italian Serie A was one of the best, if not the best, national football competitions. Top players from all over the world moved to Italy and Italian clubs were dominant in Europe. Since the beginning of the 1960s, Italian clubs competed at a top level in European football and won numerous titles. The first great success was achieved by AC Milan, when they won the European Cup in 1963, after finishing second in 1958.
Italian Clubs- some of the most successful in Europe
In fact, Italian clubs are surpassed only by Spanish clubs in terms of total number of UEFA competitions won. Spanish clubs have won a total of 52 titles, whereas Italians have a total of 48. AC Milan is the most successful Italian club in Europe with a staggering 17 European titles and their trophy room is decorated with 7 of the most prestigious club football trophies. Juventus has 11 European titles, 2 of them Champions League trophies, whereas Inter has 8, but 3 of them are Champions League titles. Parma, Lazio, Napoli and Fiorentina have also won a title or two.
If we focus on more recent times, Italian football really established itself as top-class in Europe in the 90s. Well, to be fair there were some hints towards the end of the 80s; Juventus won the European Cup in 1985 and Milan won it 1989 and then again the following 1990. By then, Italian clubs, especially AC Milan, established themselves as true football giants and Italy earned a well-deserved place on the European footballing map.
The Era of Italian Football
Italian football gained such popularity then even in the homeland of football, England, broadcasters aired Italian football and even adjusted time-slots during the weekend in order to be able to air at least two Serie A matches. The best players of the world, when they were at their best, played for Italian clubs, let us just mention George Weah, Gabriel Batistuta and Ronaldo. The top goal-scorer in Europe in the 1990-91 season, Yugoslav and Macedonian striker Darko Pan?ev, a.k.a. Cobra, rejected offers from Barcelona and numerous English clubs, to accept an offer from Internazionale. He was sold to Inter, for a fee of £7m, a record amount at the time. Later in the period of decline it became common for star players from Italian clubs, both domestic and foreign, to leave Italy and seek success elsewhere, usually in Spain, England, but also Germany, France and even Russia where they received better salaries, prizes and promotions.
There were many strong clubs during the 1990s in Italy and the League was quite competitive, Parma, Sampdoria, Fiorentina, alongside the more successful clubs such as Milan, Inter, Juventus, as well as the two rivals from the capital- Roma and Lazio, all competed at a high level, both home and abroad.
In the 1990s Italy was home to some of the top quality strikers and attacking midfielders of the world, such as Crespo, Shevchenko, Trezeguet, Ronaldinho, Vieri , Donadoni, Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Baggio, Del Piero, Pirlo (although he plays various positions), Totti and many more. Of course, there had always been high quality sweepers and full-backs in Italy, as well as goalkeepers.
In the most competitive European League- the European Cup, the Italian clubs took centre stage. We already mentioned that Milan won two years in a row- 1989 and 1990. Sampdoria reached the final 1992, and Milan was runner-up the next season. Then Milan won again the following 1994. The red and black were runners up 1995, and then Juventus won the Champions League 1996. In addition, “The Old Lady” reached the final in the following two seasons- 1997 and 1998. This record of the success of Italian clubs in the 1990s is clearly astonishing, and even in the 2000s they weren’t without any success. The two teams from Milan won the Champions League, Milan twice, in 2003 and 2007 and Inter in 2010.
The Decline
Where did it go wrong? How did the most attractive league in Europe start losing its fans? For one, foreign businessmen invested in English, Spanish and French teams, while most Italian clubs remained in Italian hands. These caused the teams from the three aforementioned countries to become more attractive and thus many top players chose them over Italian squads. In order to stay competitive in Europe, Italians switched to more defensive football and enforced the famous Catenaccio. And this wasn’t so bad. But, it was the least of their worries. In 2006, one of the most terrible scandals in football happened. It was proved that many games in the league were rigged. The champions Juventus were stripped of their last two Seria A tittles and were relegated to Seria B, with a 30 point deficit. AC Milan started the following season with a 15 point deficit and Lazio and Fiorentina were also penalised. It all started going downhill from there. The fans weren’t happy, and neither were the sponsors. Most South American players now preferred Spanish La Primera, instead of the Italian Calcio Liga. The quality of football declined significantly, and this was another reason for Italian football to become slower and more tactical. Italian teams now focused on hiring players that were coming towards the end of their career.
Corruption, lack of funds, lack of interest from players and fans alike, were few of the problems that Italian football was facing. It seemed like the glory days of Italian football are far behind and that its star faded. But, every fall is a chance for a new beginning. Of course it would take a lot of effort and the competition is quite high and fierce, it is hard for any Italian club to compete with Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG or Manchester City financially. Most Italian clubs don’t own their ground, which means that they don’t have even the match-day turnout as a source of income. Juventus decided to deal with this and built a new stadium. Now other teams, such as Milan and Roma will follow.
Calcio is coming back
In 2015, Juventus surprised many and reached the Final of the Champions League. After five years an Italian club was finally in the peak of European football. The Italian Seria A is slowly, yet steadily regaining its position. The fans are back, there are more quality players, more teams that could challenge the trophy. The matches are becoming more exciting and now there are transfers of good players to Italy as well out of it. In football there has to be investment, you don’t get something for nothing. Otherwise, it would deserve a mention on nodepositkings.com. It will be a matter of years, possibly even a decade, but Calcio will be back.
It wasn’t one of the best back in the 90’s – it was the best. There never was or never has been since a league so dominant. All top players went to Italy back then, not like now where they are more spread out.
The lowest point was probably between 2006-09 when they didn’t look like they could compete in Europe at all. But since then there has been a slow and steady rise.
They are still a way off the Spanish League which has been the dominant one since around 2000, but Serie A certainly has little to fear from England or Germany at the moment. Hopefully they all take the Europa seriously every season because that’s the key to getting the 4th CL spot back off the EPL.