Italian football's fading fortunes

AC Milan's Brazilian striker Rivaldo, centre, takes on Juventus in a pre-season game

LONDON, England (CNN) -- For most of the past two decades, Italy's football was as highly regarded as its opera or sports cars.

Serie A was recognised as the best league in the world and Italy's clubs were home to the best players anywhere on the planet, lured by lire and la dolce vita.

But Tuesday's decision by Serie A clubs to delay the start of the new season is the latest blow to the prestige of Italian football.

With eight of Italy's top-flight members unable to secure pay-per-view television deals, the Italian Football League voted to postpone the first round of matches by two weeks until September 15, granting precious extra time for those clubs to secure broadcasting contracts on which their survival could depend.

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The league has also called on Italy's government to declare a state of crisis in the football industry, permitting tax concessions and other benefits for clubs on the brink of bankruptcy.

"TV rights are just the trigger," world soccer expert Keir Radnedge told CNN. "For a long time Italian football financially hasn't had the structure to support the profligate spending, both in terms of transfer fees and player wages."

That has left clubs vulnerable to the sudden collapse of the TV market, also being felt in England and Germany.

"The structure of Italian football has a particular problem in that while most English clubs own their own ground so they have a fixed asset against which to borrow, most Italian clubs do not own any actual assets at all," says Radnedge.

Personal guarantee

"They have to depend on a wealthy owner or president who provides a personal guarantee against the club's debt. So if the economy in general hits a problem, the presidents' main interests are their business concerns and the first thing to go is the fun and games."

A recent report in financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore claimed Serie A clubs had made a combined operating loss of US$673 million in the 2000-01 season, with many clubs spending upwards of 80 percent of turnover on player wages. Squad salaries at Parma, who won last season's Italian Cup, totalled 110 percent of the club's total revenue.

Already Fiorentina, two-time Italian champions and until recently regular Champions League contenders, have collapsed under the weight of debts estimated at US$22 million.

Relegated from Serie A, the Florentine club was subsequently kicked out of Serie B. A new club formed from the remains, Florentia Viola, will start again in Serie C2, Italy's fourth division.

Italy's biggest clubs are also suffering. On Tuesday, Lazio had three transfer deals annulled by the Italian Football League because of doubts the Roman giants had the resources to pay for the players.

The Italian champions of 2000 have been desperate to offload some of their biggest stars, including Italian defender Alessandro Nesta and Argentine forwards Hernan Crespo Claudio Lopez. So far only Spanish midfielder Gaizka Mendieta's loan move to Barcelona has eased the wage bill.

Fallen behind

The decline in Italy's fortunes on the field has been equally marked. Italian clubs featured in every Champions League final except one between 1989 and 1998 but Juventus was the last Italian winner in 1996. For the past three seasons Italian clubs have not even reached the last four of Europe's most prestigious club competition.

As Italian sides have fallen behind their Spanish, English and German rivals, Serie A has lost the monopoly it once held over the world's best players. French playmaker Zinedine Zidane left Juventus for Real Madrid last summer and now Brazilian striker Ronaldo seems determined to join him, having become disillusioned with life at Inter Milan.

Even Massimo Maccarone, the star of Empoli's promotion-winning season in Serie B and the Italian Under-21 side's European Championship campaign, has chosen to join English Premier League side Middlesbrough, rather than ply his trade in Serie A.

But Radnedge believes standards in Italian football remain high.

"If you look at the ability of the coaches and the players, Italy is still one of the main three leagues with Spain and England. The profile is enormous, higher even than Spain although Spain is a better quality league these days.

"And the background to the Maccarone deal is that he perhaps isn't as good as people say he is and he's grabbed a good deal at Middlesbrough. Traditionally Italian players don't ever think of playing outside Italy."

Many Italians think the state of football must get worse still before things can begin to improve.

"Italian football can only relaunch itself after it has cleaned itself from the inside. A strong bloodbath would be a good way to show the desire to change course," the newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport wrote in an editorial on Wednesday.

"I'm not sure about a bloodbath," says Radnedge "But they need much greater control and leadership from the Italian Olympic Committee and the Italian League. The governments need to implement much tighter accounting controls, something like in Germany where a club licensing system exists.

"In a way it was a positive step that they allowed Fiorentina to go bust. That was the bottoming out. But once the new season starts they'll make sure everyone keeps going."