Serie A to break away

[overseas shrimper]

Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but it looks like Serie A is about to follow the Premiership blueprint. Could this see Italy's top teams become more competitive once again?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/8027857.stm

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but it looks like Serie A is about to follow the Premiership blueprint. Could this see Italy's top teams become more competitive once again?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/8027857.stm

Good news for the England football team.

 

[overseas shrimper]

Good news for the England football team.

How's that?

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

How's that?

The Premier$hite's effect on English football has been to weaken the national team.

Italy are world champions,so anything that weakens them has to be good for the England national team.

 

[overseas shrimper]

The Premier$hite's effect on English football has been to weaken the national team.

Italy are world champions,so anything that weakens them has to be good for the England national team.

Do you really believe that? After 1962 England didn't actually reach a world cup by qualification until 1982 (even Scotland made it to '74... the shame). That was back when there was no Premiership and top clubs fielded plenty of English talent.

The 80's then saw a succession of hype turned to disappointment in world cups and Euros.

We've just not been good enough and our football is run by poor administrators / decision makers IMHO.

 

[Firestorm]

Given the potential for a number of Serie B teams to go to the wall without the TV rights , the development of Italian players may well suffer

 

[overseas shrimper]

Given the potential for a number of Serie B teams to go to the wall without the TV rights , the development of Italian players may well suffer

Yeah, that's more the point. Serie B may well go the route of most teams in Serie C 1 and 2 by turning semi-pro. This will also mean poorer resources in developing talent.

Having said that, they could pour more into homegrown talent as a way of forming squads and selling on for fees that keep them growing.

C1 and C2 are dire leagues with terrible grounds and awful support. If Serie B goes that way there will be a far greater divide between B and the new A than there is between Prem and CCC.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Do you really believe that? After 1962 England didn't actually reach a world cup by qualification until 1982 (even Scotland made it to '74... the shame). That was back when there was no Premiership and top clubs fielded plenty of English talent.

The 80's then saw a succession of hype turned to disappointment in world cups and Euros.

We've just not been good enough and our football is run by poor administrators / decision makers IMHO.

Yes, I do believe that. Club football has taken precedence over the national team.

Italy won the world cup when their domestic football was weak because it was in disarray because of betting scandals (2006, 1982). When English club football was dominating Europe in the late 70s and early 80s, we were atrocious on the international stage.

Recent world cup winners France and Brazil did not have leagues that were considered "strong" at the time.

Has the country with the "strongest" league in the world ever won a World Cup?

When club football becomes the focus the national team loses out, you get petty squabbling between the factions and ***** like Gerrard more interested in their club team than their national team.

Give me a league with depth, where players won't be tired through playing too many pointless Champions (sic) League group games which are scheduled out of pure greed rather than in the interests of competition. Give me a league which is competitive, in which promoted teams are stronger than the ones they replace. Give me a league which doesn't pay the most wages, so that the better plays go overseas, experience more and become more rounded players and individuals.

I'd choose England over the English (sic) Premier League.

 

[Manchester Shrimper]

Has the country with the "strongest" league in the world ever won a World Cup?

Hard to say in the days before multiple Champions' League entries but West Germany's World Cup win in 74 came amidst 3 successive European Cup wins for Bayern Munich 74-76 and the year before Borrusia Moenchengladbach winning the 75 UEFA Cup. Also, Italian teams won all 3 European trophies in 1990, the year they came 3rd in the World Cup and the South American Club champions were Brazilian in 1962 and Argentinian in 1978 and 1986.

I don't think it's either here nor there whether the international team is successful when club teams are. The important thing is whether the top clubs invest in bringing through young local players to play first team football. This isn't really happening with the top 4- Liverpool don't do it much, Chelsea don't do it at all, Man U don't do it like they used to whereas Arsenal have a good youth system but usually flog the fruits to lesser teams.

On the other hand, Dutch clubs in the 70s and 80s invested in youth in a big way and their clubs were successful and their national team punched above their weight for a country their size, winning the Euros in 88 and reaching the World Cup finals in 74 and 78.

 

[Firestorm]

Its no a new thing though is it

Real Madrid totally dominated the Early days of the European cup, but as neither Puskas or Di Stefano were Spanish they continued to underachieve on the International front

 

[Thorpe Groyney]

The only time we've come close to winning the World Cup on foreign soil was in 1990, just before the First Division clubs decided money was more important than football. We've not come remotely close to competing with the established top nations since then.

 

[fredheim_holm]

That's a real real shame. If anything Italy should be looking to improve their structure down the leagues with Serie C1 getting more funding and giving them some sort of footballing format, this will surely be worse for everyone in Italian football, even the top flight will have less players coming through.

 

[overseas shrimper]

That's a real real shame. If anything Italy should be looking to improve their structure down the leagues with Serie C1 getting more funding and giving them some sort of footballing format, this will surely be worse for everyone in Italian football, even the top flight will have less players coming through.

I agree with everything you said, apart from the first sentence.

;)

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

The only time we've come close to winning the World Cup on foreign soil was in 1990, just before the First Division clubs decided money was more important than football. We've not come remotely close to competing with the established top nations since then.

1990 (and I think, 1986, when we gave the eventual winners a scare in the quarters) was notable for being at a time when our clubs were banned from Europe.

 

[Up the Shrimpers]

Yeah, that's more the point. Serie B may well go the route of most teams in Serie C 1 and 2 by turning semi-pro. This will also mean poorer resources in developing talent.

Having said that, they could pour more into homegrown talent as a way of forming squads and selling on for fees that keep them growing.

C1 and C2 are dire leagues with terrible grounds and awful support. If Serie B goes that way there will be a far greater divide between B and the new A than there is between Prem and CCC.

Just checked that the average crowd in Serie B this season is only 5,453 can't be bothered to look but that must be the lowest it's been for years. Southend's average home crowd this season is bigger than 18 Serie B clubs.

As for the Lega Pro Primo Division A (the old Serie C1) the average crowd is only 2,338 and in the Division B (the old C2) the average crowd is 904.