The New Hierarchy of Italian Soccer?

I'm noticing an increasing trend in Italian soccer over the past couple of months/years. It seems that now more than ever "big" clubs in Italy are receiving preferential treatment from the federation in terms of their status in the heirarchy of Italian soccer. I'm not talking about referee favors that teams like Milan, Juve etc. allegedly receive on a regular basis, at least according to the more embittered souls out there. The issue I'm referring to is an apparent attempt on the part of the federation to ensure that certain clubs are preserved as much as possible, even at the expense of other, smaller clubs. Three recent examples just to outline my point:

1) Fiorentina's famous promotion based on "sporting merit." Due to the high-profile Catania issue, Serie B had to be expanded from 20 to 24 clubs to accomodiate Catania who had been relegated based on financial problems, only to be reinstated shortly thereafter when their replacement in Serie B had already been brought up from C1. To round out the 24, Fiorentina, newly promoted to C1 to begin with, are arbitrarily chosen to be #24. The "sporting merit" was never clearly defined by the federation, but Fiorentina's status as a club with a certain history, representing a large city, was an obvious factor.

2) Lazio's plan to pay off it's debt in 23 (?) years. Bottom line - if a smaller club had presented a similar plan, they would be playing in Serie D next year. Again, Lazio's large fanbase, based in and around the largest city in the country, not to mention Lazio's pedigree of success (two scudetti including a recent one, etc.) must have been determining factors.

3) Napoli - the club barely had time to lose the promotion playoff against Avellino, and already the powers-that-be hinted strongly that Napoli had "excellent" chances of being promoted to Serie B (or even Serie A! ) due to numerous clubs in B and A who would potentially be relegated based on their own financial irregularities. If Napoli had either won promotion on its own or finished say in mid-table, far away from the promotion zone, would certain high-ranking individuals have spoken of this possibility so quickly and assuredly if clubs like Reggiana or Sambenedettese had been in Napoli's current position? The answer is obvious...

Here is the point I'm getting at. It seems the federation is beginning to view big markets with greater importance in the grand scheme of things. Sure, they always have to a certain degree, but in the past, if a big club were relegated, everyone would say "oh well" and wait for them to come back up. Now, in the era of multi-million dollar TV deals, where marketing has become king and it's all about needing to sell a product to as big an audience as possible, things are different. Now, it hurts everyone to a certain extent if big clubs representing big markets are not around. Let's face it, would you rather watch Milan-Siena or a Milan-Napoli, with a competitive, stable Serie A Napoli club?

In recent times we've had not only Fiorentina and Napoli, but also Torino relegated to minor markets. Genoa. Sure, Palermo has stepped up and that's not a small market. But we've also seen Siena in Serie A, and for two years now and counting. We've seen Chievo, the second Verona club, step up and play in Serie A where the "real" Verona club languishes in the minor ranks and at one point faced relegation to C1. Lazio could have just as easily been declared bankrupt and relegated who knows where depending on how strict the federation wanted to be with its problems. Roma had some close calls.

What do you guys think? Are the three incidents I mentioned above isolated incidents, or do you think the federation will continue to defend the big clubs in an effort to protect the overall quality and entertainment value of Serie A? What do you think of the possibility that one day, perhaps 20 years from now, there will be a core of Serie A clubs representing bigger markets that are "untouchable" and possibly unrelegatable, with other clubs around them fighting it out to fill in the remaining slots in an 18 or 20 team Serie A?

Based on the radical changes soccer has experienced in recent years (big money TV rights contracts, institution of the Champions League, etc.), the possibility of certain clubs being granted permanent status as Serie A clubs would not surprise me in the slightest; an Italian G14 if you will. After all, a Serie A full of small clubs who play above clubs from big cities who have 70,000 in their stadium doesn't make much sense if you think about it. Perhaps there will be an "Italian Premier League" one day which will feature only the big clubs, with smaller clubs playing in a "Division I" league where the top finishers playoff against the weaker "Premier" clubs for places in Europe and so on. Stranger things have happened...

I'm not saying for a minute that small club who work hard and play fair shouldn't be given a fair chance at being in Serie A. I'm just saying that eventually someone out there may think it makes good business sense to ensure certain markets (i.e. Milan, Rome, Florence, Naples, Turin and others) are represented in the major division no matter what. Of course, there are a million and one problems potentially associated with creating an official heirarchy, but that hasn't stopped numerous other potentially bad ideas from being implemented already...

 

Re: The New Heirarchy of Italian Soccer?

....which is slowly but surely happening now with the current Champions League format and G14 nonsense. One day we're going to wake up and never know what hit us.

 

This is a very good point as well. It seems that after knocking the clubs down, partially in an effort to send a strong message, and perhaps also in an effort to give an appearance the powers-that-be wanted to ensure the clubs were restored to their "proper" place as soon as possible...

 

The Bologna president has a history of run-ins with the Roman clubs, particularly Roma. I can't remember what the issue was, but something about Roma never having paid him for away tickets etc.

Glad to see the Parma issue was brought up there as well. The story after Parmalat's bankruptcy never made sense to me, but since the mayor is apparently friends with Berlusconi, it's quite obvious why Parma didn't suffer the same fate as Fiorentina and Napoli. Plus, while not actually winning any scudetti, Parma did win some trophies in Europe and was in many ways "the club of the 90's" for Serie A. They could well end up in the hypothetical Italian G14 in the future.

 

I thought Serie D does exist, or was it called something else this year? If they changed the name, it will be called Serie D again at some point in the future.

 

Well, the problem is that if a club outspends their own worth, it gives them an unfair advantage. Look at French clubs and the strict rules imposed upon them by the French government. French clubs and fans have at times (quietly) complained that other clubs, such as Italian and Spanish ones, have a big advantage over French clubs because they don't have to operate at a profit. In fact, an article published just today in La Repubblica suggests that 70% of Italian clubs in A and B operate at a deficit, stating that while Italian clubs have brought in 1.2 billion Euros last season, they have spent 1.8 billion. This could never happen in France.

The federation has to intervene in cases like Lazio's and others'. Otherwise, a club will spend itself into oblivion, firstly giving it an unfair advantage against other clubs who are doing the decent thing and attempting to spend within their limits (do clubs like that actually exist?? wow! where?? ), and secondly bring about their ultimate demise as they go bankrupt and start again in C2. The federation has an obligation to ensure that neither of these things happen (especially the second one).