Problems in Italy

MooShop

The Italian league seems to be in a bit of a mess at the moment:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=337696&cc=5739

What do ye make of this??

Mossy Monk

no harm about Genoa being dumped to the bottom

but 17 teams ready for the new season :eek:

MooShop

yeah thats more why i posted it, 17 teams and there should be 20?? They seem to be very strict on teams in financial difficulty in Italy, there used to be only 18 teams in Serie A in the 90's, maybe they'll have to go back to that format

Jivin Turkey

You would have to wonder the logic in running the risk paying off an already relegated team when you are flying high yourself.

Unfortunately results appear to be "arranged" all too often in the Italian league. It is a goldmine come toward the end of the season betting on mutually beneficial draws between clubs down in the wrong end of the table. A friend of mine pocketed over e500 betting on Reggina and Lecce I think towards the end of last year, he had been tipped off someone else.

YeatsCounty

Italian football has been in a mess for years, and it's all coming out now. From the Juventus 'drugs trial' to the relegation of Genoa and Torino.........The FIGC needs to seriously restructure the game in Italy again, the last proposals they introduced a few years ago aren't working.

I'd say Bologna, Perugia, and Treviso will be looking at the current situation very closely.

The only really surprising thing for me is that Messina have apparantly been demoted as well! In the last few years we've had:

• The Fiorentina saga
• The demotion of Napoli
• The crazy situation a couple of years ago when Piacenza (I think, I'm not 100% sure) refused to be relegated from Serie B which left a 24 team Serie B and ended up with Serie B having 22 teams and Serie A having 20
• The abandoned Rome Derby.
• Crowd trouble at European games involving Roma (lighter throwing) and the Milan Derby (flares)
• Inter 'fans' throwing a scooter off the top tier on to the bottom tier (more trouble)
• Roma banned from signing players.

That's all I can thnk off of the top of my head.

YeatsCounty

Italian Olympic Committee rejects Torino appeal

Genoa to appeal demotion.

“We will appeal to every court and I hope the judges listen to us,” Genoa lawyer Alfredo Biondi told gazzetta.it.

The the start of the Italian League season delayed yet again? Don't rule it out.

YeatsCounty

If the appeals fail, this is how Serie A and B will look for the upcoming season (possibly not 100% correct, where's Messina?).

Serie A 2005-2006 (Provisional):
Ascoli, Bologna, Cagliari, Chievo, Empoli, Fiorentina, Inter, Juventus, Lazio, Lecce, Livorno, Milan, Palermo, Parma, Reggina, Roma, Sampdoria, Siena, Treviso, Udinese

Serie B 2005-2006 (Provisional):
Albinoleffe, Arezzo, Atalanta, Avellino, Bari, Brescia, Catania, Catanzaro, Cesena, Cremonese, Crotone, Mantova, Napoli, Pescara, Piacenza, Rimini, Ternana, Torino, Triestina, Verona, Vicenza.

Interesting article about the whole mess here:
Summer of Scandal.

~Rebel~

would have figured messina would have been in seria B again after not being up to the financial standards of A..who knows in that crazy league though!

YeatsCounty

Each team will have to play 38 games in a World Cup season!

How badly will that effect the big boys? I'm worried because the extra games (only four, but that could be crucial especially if the start of Serie A is delayed) might seriously disrupt Milan's season. :-/

Bateman

YeatsCounty wrote:

Italian football has been in a mess for years, and it's all coming out now. From the Juventus 'drugs trial' to the relegation of Genoa and Torino.........The FIGC needs to seriously restructure the game in Italy again, the last proposals they introduced a few years ago aren't working.

I'd say Bologna, Perugia, and Treviso will be looking at the current situation very closely.

The only really surprising thing for me is that Messina have apparantly been demoted as well! In the last few years we've had:

• The Fiorentina saga
• The demotion of Napoli
• The crazy situation a couple of years ago when Piacenza (I think, I'm not 100% sure) refused to be relegated from Serie B which left a 24 team Serie B and ended up with Serie B having 22 teams and Serie A having 20
• The abandoned Rome Derby.
• Crowd trouble at European games involving Roma (lighter throwing) and the Milan Derby (flares)
• Inter 'fans' throwing a scooter off the top tier on to the bottom tier (more trouble)
• Roma banned from signing players.

That's all I can thnk off of the top of my head.

Apart from the fans stopping the Rome derby, there was also the farcical 0-0 derby towards the end of the season. Another arranged match.

YeatsCounty

Bateman wrote:

Apart from the fans stopping the Rome derby, there was also the farcical 0-0 derby towards the end of the season. Another arranged match.

While that was the worst game ever and the fans of both sides were threatening to invade the pitch and give the players a good kicking (wouldn't have blamed them), I don't think that it was a fixed result. A point wouldn't have helped either team really, they still needed to win their remaining games to be safe from relegation.

Then again, it probably was rigged, because what's a useless point between Roman cousins?

*sigh*

Bateman

YeatsCounty wrote:

While that was the worst game ever and the fans of both sides were threatening to invade the pitch and give the players a good kicking (wouldn't have blamed them), I don't think that it was a fixed result. A point wouldn't have helped either team really, they still needed to win their remaining games to be safe from relegation.

Then again, it probably was rigged, because what's a useless point between Roman cousins?

*sigh*

Maybe they both needed to win their remaining games to survive, but a defeat in the derby would have been catastrophic for the morale of the losers, and could have seriously affected their performances for the last couple of games.

YeatsCounty

Bateman wrote:

Maybe they both needed to win their remaining games to survive, but a defeat in the derby would have been catastrophic for the morale of the losers, and could have seriously affected their performances for the last couple of games.

That's true, didn't take that into account.

YeatsCounty

Messina back in Serie A - Torino appeal rejected.
Torino still demoted from Serie A for now, Perugia and Salernitana banned from Serie B.

Genoa appeal rejected.
"The appeals commission of the Italian Football Federation has rejected all the appeals relating to the case and confirmed that all sanctions imposed against the club and officials would stand.........Their Coppa Italia tie against Catanzaro on Sunday was abandoned after 21 minutes when Genoa fans threw flares on to the pitch." :rolleyes:

Third_Echelon

Those Italians are crazy when it comes to football... and everything else come to think of it.

The Italian game is corrupt from top to bottom and it needs to be sorted out asap. It's been going on for years and ruins the spectacle of what is a good league...

They need a 'premiership' style re-launch i think...

YeatsCounty

Third_Echelon wrote:

Those Italians are crazy when it comes to football... and everything else come to think of it.

The Italian game is corrupt from top to bottom and it needs to be sorted out asap. It's been going on for years and ruins the spectacle of what is a good league...

They need a 'premiership' style re-launch i think...

The Italian League needs a serious restructuring program, from top to bottom and vice versa. This carousel of crap has been going on for the last three seasons, and it's undermining the excellent work that Milan, Juve, Inter (flare throwing aside), Parma and hopefully Udinese are doing in European competition.

I'm just thankful that Milan are in a safe financial position, and that they won't suffer the ignomony of being demoted to Serie B for financial irregularities, like they were in the early 1980's.

Mossy Monk

YeatsCounty wrote:

threw flares on to the pitch." :rolleyes:

will the Italian FA take note and ban them ****ing things

mr_angry

Does this mean Venezia have been re-enstated as a Serie B club despite having been part of the match-fixing saga and been relegated from the division at the same time? Result!

YeatsCounty

mr_angry wrote:

Does this mean Venezia have been re-enstated as a Serie B club despite having been part of the match-fixing saga and been relegated from the division at the same time? Result!

I don't know about that, but it seems unlikely that Venezia would be allowed into Serie B after the mess they and Genoa caused. I've heard nothing about them appealing or being reinstated.

Then again, who knows what's going in that League anymore? :rolleyes:

Bateman

In fairness, I think that a "Premiership-style re-launch" is the last thing the Italian league needs. Killing off atmosphere and switching games to suit the the wishes of the TV execs has already started in Italy, and attendances have decreased as a result. Fans in Italy actually have power, and while they might have too much power at some clubs, the principle of fans having power is only right.

Third_Echelon

Bateman wrote:

In fairness, I think that a "Premiership-style re-launch" is the last thing the Italian league needs. Killing off atmosphere and switching games to suit the the wishes of the TV execs has already started in Italy, and attendances have decreased as a result. Fans in Italy actually have power, and while they might have too much power at some clubs, the principle of fans having power is only right.

When a 'brand' gets tainted it needs to be killed and rebranded/relaunched. I didn't mean exactly in the same way or style as the English Premiership. I only used that as an example as it was the most recent and close to home that I can think of in the sport. A product/brand that did this somewhat successfully would be Skoda for example...

The old division 1 was flagging badly and it needed freshening up and it has turned it back into one of the best leagues in the world.
Something along these lines needs to be done in Italy to bring the good atmosphere back as well as the attendances.

YeatsCounty

Messina officially safe, Torino must stay in Serie B

"Perugia and Salernitana have also been excluded from Serie B, while Benevento (C1), Imolese and Rosetana (C2) are ruled out. The State Counsel did accept the appeals put forward by Gela and Sassari Torres, who will play in Serie C1."