Serie A. Yes, the top football division in Italy experienced a huge turnover in the last decade or so. Who could have thought that the Serie A teams like the Milan duo could find it an uphill battle even to qualify for the champions league next season, these are the Same milan clubs which dominated Europe alongside Juventus in the 80s and 90s.
So what happened ? Why aren't there any Italian team in the last 8 of the champions league this year. The only Italian team competing in europe is Juventus and that too in the second tier (Europa League). Many questions arise to why the nation where foreign legends like Zidan, Maradona, Cafu and Ronaldo to name a few have once outplayed the rest of europe to proclaim the best league status has now been under the shadow of star departures. The reason behind this could be many among them is the lack of revenue, yes, the Italian football do have a great anual revenue but so is the expenditure.
Serie A never experienced International exposure like the Premier League and hence causing a decline in their income. Since we are talking about income let me just inform you that the match day income of any italian club is also much much less in comparison to their european counterparts. The reason behind this being the stadium which most of the clubs don't own and not to mention the lack of services provided to the fans. Fans also play an important in the financial status of a club, as we can see during any serie A match, most of the grounds are half empty. Apart from the financial loss the fans in most italian matches seem violent and encourage racism.
Due to the above facts alone foreign players of good callibre don't prefer italy as of now and in the process hamper the overall quality of Italian football. With the sale of star players like Cavani, Thiago Silva, Ibrahimovic and many others, what got affected the most is the quality of italian football as player would prefer a move to either the Premier league or La Liga and now even France.
Apart from the above factors the main reason for the downfall of Serie A seems to be the "calciopoli Scandal" in 2006, where many of the clubs were accused of match fixing and referee preferences were taken. The club that suffered the most from this was Juventus. Juventus got their title taken away and wer demoted to the second division which eventualy caused a massive stir in Seria A resulting in less sponsors and the worst, player leaving their clubs. Though juventus did manage to get promoted and now stand at the Top of the table after becoming champions last year. So if Juventus can bounce back from Serie B to take away the Serie A title then what happened to the other clubs ?.
Now it remains very unclear where the future of italian football lies, but the future does looks bright with the asian ownership of Inter and the massive spending of Napoli only time will tell whether we can see the italian giants wake up again or they will be overpowered by the ever growing Premier League and La Liga.
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