SERIE A Season under threat?

From: http://football.guardian.co.uk/break...156497,00.html

Italy's Serie A faces a summer of discontent
By James Eve
ROME, July 22 (Reuters) - Italy's long-suffering soccer fans are used to their clubs losing huge amounts of money.
Fiorentina's slide into bankruptcy, the collapse of Parma's parent company Parmalat and the financial struggles of Lazio and AS Roma showed that no club was immune.
Even the most hardened fan, however, winced when the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) got tough last week.
On Friday, Messina and newly-promoted Torino were expelled from Serie A because of the state of their finances.
For years the federation had watched clubs totter towards ruin. A new zero tolerance policy had snared its first victims and, in all, 13 clubs were expelled from the top four divisions.
On Sunday, the FIGC landed its second blow - Serie B champions Genoa were charged with match-fixing, putting at risk their place in the top flight.
While the news of Messina and Torino's debts was greeted with a kind of weary acceptance, these new charges arrived like a bolt of lightning.
Last month Genoa fans had celebrated the end of a 10-year exile from Serie A after beating Venezia 3-2 in their final match of the season.
POLICE STOPPED
The party did not last long. A few days later Venezia's general manager Giuseppe Pagliara was stopped by police as he drove away from the business headquarters of Genoa president Enrico Preziosi near Milan.
Inside the car they found a suitcase containing 250,000 euros ($304,000) - a downpayment for the transfer of Venezia defender Ruben Maldonado, according to Pagliara.
Investigation of telephone calls between Preziosi, Preziosi's son Matteo and Venezia's director general Michele Dal Cin in the run-up to the last game of the season prompted the FIGC to launch its investigation.
Eight men - all of them officials or players at Genoa and Venezia - face charges of sporting fraud and Italian football looks set for a series of legal actions that could leave the make-up of next season's Serie A in doubt well into August.
Messina and Torino made their first appeal against FIGC's decision on Thursday in front of the Italian Olympic Committee. A verdict is not expected for some days.
Should this appeal fail, they will resort to the regional and state courts in the hope of being reinstated in Serie A.
The situation could grow even more complicated if other clubs enter the legal process.
Bologna were relegated to Serie B after losing a playoff against Parma at the end of last season.
Their president, Giuseppe Gazzoni, has already promised to launch legal action to have his club readmitted to the top flight in place of Messina.
As for the fans, their patience is wearing thin.
The streets of Messina have been thronged with demonstrators demanding the readmission of their side into Serie A and promising to march on FIGC headquarters in Rome if their wishes were not granted.
In Genoa, the mood is uglier as two banners unfurled at the weekend in the city's Luigi Ferraris stadium proved.
"Serie A or there will be violence," threatened one.
"Ready for anything, right down to the last arrest," read the other.

Why cant a Serie A season start on time for once? Why is it that there always seems to be something that delays the start of the season?

For a league rated as the best in the world, this is just the sort of situation the Italian FA should be seeking to avoid. Somehow, they (including the clubs to some extent) cant seem to get it right.

If the Italian FA makes a rule, every club in breach of same tries to wiggle its way out of paying the consequences.

It is unbelievable that a club could be found to be financially unsound, be expelled from the league, yet try legal means to get reinstated..while I can see their side, I would think that their efforts should be confined to getting back into the black, as opposed to diving deeper into the red to find money to fight a court battle, that they could very well end up losing.

It is very frustrating for me to see the season´s start delayed over things such as this...last year it was tv money (I think) now its money again, but moreso those who used it to cheat (Genoa) or those who dont have enough.

What this does to Milan, and other teams fighting for European glory, is to delay the player´s conditioning and match fitness, so they face their European counterparts usually with unfit players, due to...wait for it...another delayed Serie A start.

Yet, at the risk of offending my Italian friends, is it a cultural thing, as in Brazil, where a pseudo order exists just so as to fool FIFA into thinking that there are responsible people running football, when in reality, its just a bunch of spoiled brats, trying at all costs to have their way?

Maybe the late start wont affect Milan, but as a fan of Italian football, its leaving a bad taste in my mouth...

I guess no country is immune. In Italy, there have been too many problems accumulated from the past, I don't think this shock therapy is going to solve this problem once and for good. It could even create more new problems, as football is almost all Italian's life.

I don't care for Messina, but I will like to see Torino and Genoa stay up. I always like Torino, as for Genoa, I dont' want to see Abbiati playing lower level games.

And I would like to see Serie A back to 18 teams, or even 16. I don't mind watching fewer games of my beloved team. A season of 38 or 42 games for a team simply sucks.

The problems arise simple because being in serie A means so much to teams that they either get themselves into debt or buy themselves points.I understand that FIFA have directives to all leagues to reduce the number of teams to 18.Surely this would be the perfect opportunity to reduce the team numbers rather than promote teams in 4th or 5th place or not relegate teams.is this a reason for the delay in producing the fixtures?

Not just FIGC... Even UEFA and FIFA are getting stricter with their financial rules and regulations. Take Man United for instance, the governing football bodies weren't joking when they told MU that if their debt situation doesnt get any better in the next few years, MU may well be disbanded.

id be happy if its postponed... when the season starts id be on my flight to the US for uni (inshallah) and i need time to get channels that view milan matches... by the way... US fans, does golTV show all milan matches? if not per season how much by percent? and how much are live?

Originally Posted by mk18

id be happy if its postponed... when the season starts id be on my flight to the US for uni (inshallah) and i need time to get channels that view milan matches... by the way... US fans, does golTV show all milan matches? if not per season how much by percent? and how much are live?

I cant answer that. So sorry. Be ready to see virtually no Serie A games. It cost $$$ to watch soccer here. MLS is free. They'd probably pay you to watch their games. For me I have satellite tv so I can watch whatever. Most cable providers in the US arent too big in Serie A. It is possible though but as again limited and $$.

Very good MK! Where did you decide to study??? In Massachussetts? I thought you were contemplating Canada??

I think Rai International is your best shot for Serie A games, CL games of Italian teams and Coppa Italia matches. Other than that ESPN 2, Fox Soccer Channel, golTV, Setanta Sports will give you coverage of CL, Bundesliga, Primera, and Premiership games. You can also watch French, Scotish, Argentinian, Brazilian, and in general South American soccer on those above. Most of these games, however, would be replay for precedence is given to the 4 big European championships. If you choose to have RTPi it often shows games from the Portugese League, in case you are interested.


EDIT: Sat TV is the way to go, forget about cable unless you are into watching boring American Football and Baseball games.

Sorry.... complete edited post is right below.

The problem with many of these clubs IMO is that they follow out of date business practices. They have to get out of their "mustache pete" kind of way of running the club. Football is a big business... always has been but the financial world has changed since the 70's. When touring Italy about a year and a half ago, I was appalled at the state so many of these clubs were in. Many had no business friendly or even customer friendly business or marketing offices. The only club that did have a respectabe headquarters was yours truly AC Milan. Even then... there can be improvements with the Via Turati office.
Ideally govt should stay out of the business affairs of the clubs. However in this case as Calcio is one of the vital fibres in Italian culture, it does become important for the Italian and European govts to establish financial rules and regulation to protect the game. Clubs habitually running themselves into the red are threatening the game so in this case I think the governing bodies are doing the right thing. Of course no one wants to see any more delay to any season so it does suck.
I have nothing against any appeals process by these clubs as long as the ruling arbitrarily says that the books MUST be in order for any chance to stay in Serie A. The sacrifice from these clubs must be made and not bargained for leniency.

Originally Posted by zlatanov

EDIT: Sat TV is the way to go, forget about cable unless you are into watching boring American Football and Baseball games.

So true. I like those sports too. But compared to Calcio.
As a student though Zlat, what are his chances of getting good access to football. If he's living on campus that could be hard to do. No??

Originally Posted by zlatanov

I think Rai International is your best shot for Serie A games, CL games of Italian teams and Coppa Italia matches. Other than that ESPN 2, Fox Soccer Channel, golTV, Setanta Sports will give you coverage of CL, Bundesliga, Primera, and Premiership games. You can also watch French, Scotish, Argentinian, Brazilian, and in general South American soccer on those above. Most of these games, however, would be replay for precedence is given to the 4 big European championships. If you choose to have RTPi it often shows games from the Portugese League, in case you are interested.


EDIT: Sat TV is the way to go, forget about cable unless you are into watching boring American Football and Baseball games.

BTW ZLAT. I'm a bit envious knowing you are there with AC Milan in town. Get to see em practice and all??? Also at what time is the game??? You going???

Originally Posted by Kui

So true. I like those sports too. But compared to Calcio.
As a student though Zlat, what are his chances of getting good access to football. If he's living on campus that could be hard to do. No??

If he is on campus, it would really depend on the uni policy regarding installing sat TV dishes on you window or some other "good" spot. If they don't allow it, he will probably have access to cable TV from the uni which includes ESPN 2 - good but not great for CL games, and maybe if he is lucky some other channel - not sure about the name - showing EPL games.
If off campus, th options are much better - either DirectTV or Dish Network, I would recommend the latter - they have much more international channels, and even Jordanian TV stations .
Another option would be if he has friends living off campus. In that case even if MK18 lives on campus, several people could team up and have sat TV installed at an off campus residence. That way, you can watch games with friends and pay much less than one normally would.

Originally Posted by Kui

BTW ZLAT. I'm a bit envious knowing you are there with AC Milan in town. Get to see em practice and all??? Also at what time is the game??? You going???

Oh, yeah. I was there for both of the practice sessions and watched them VERY carefully who was trying to sneek out between the excercises and who gave it all . The training sessions were on the Boston College Campus from 10.00 am and 6.00 pm local time. The second session was scheduled for 5.00 - this was on the official website - so I was there at 4.30 and had to wait for them bastards for more than 1.5 hours . Took some pix but no autographs for this is a rule of thumb I have - no sigs from entertainers but only from people with truely great achievements ... I am sure it sounds crazy but that's the way it is.
The game is from 7.00 pm local time at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. It is about 40-50 min from where I live but I won't be going . I bought a ticket - 85 bucks including convenience charge - but late Sunday morning I just have to leave for New York. Gave my ticket to a friend of mine and that bastard will support Chelski ... go figure ... but I guess friend are like that

Originally Posted by mk18

id be happy if its postponed... when the season starts id be on my flight to the US for uni (inshallah) and i need time to get channels that view milan matches... by the way... US fans, does golTV show all milan matches? if not per season how much by percent? and how much are live?

I really think RAI international will be perfect for Serie A games in the US. The commentary will be in Italian but hey...

Originally Posted by zlatanov

Oh, yeah. I was there for both of the practice sessions and watched them VERY carefully who was trying to sneek out between the excercises and who gave it all . The training sessions were on the Boston College Campus from 10.00 am and 6.00 pm local time. The second session was scheduled for 5.00 - this was on the official website - so I was there at 4.30 and had to wait for them bastards for more than 1.5 hours . Took some pix but no autographs for this is a rule of thumb I have - no sigs from entertainers but only from people with truely great achievements ... I am sure it sounds crazy but that's the way it is.
The game is from 7.00 pm local time at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. It is about 40-50 min from where I live but I won't be going . I bought a ticket - 85 bucks including convenience charge - but late Sunday morning I just have to leave for New York. Gave my ticket to a friend of mine and that bastard will support Chelski ... go figure ... but I guess friend are like that

lucky guy...but not so lucky with the game itself

How did Vieri look?