In 2018 and 2022, it was a shame for Italian football to miss out on the finals of two consecutive World Cups. Unexpectedly, in the European Championship this time, the Italian team, as the defending champion, lost to the Swiss team in the first round of the knockout round and ended the trip to Germany hastily.
The Italian team players retired in disappointment, according to Visual China
In the 2021 Euro Championship, which missed the World Cup for two consecutive years, the Italian team won the championship without being favored, which seems to have found a "fig leaf" for Italian football. So after this European Championship enters the main event, the whole of Italy hopes that the national team can play a turnaround battle. After all, Italian football has been on a good trajectory this year, first topping the European standings and receiving a reward from UEFA – five Serie A teams can play in the Champions League next season. In the three major tournaments in Europe this season, two Serie A teams reached the final, and in the end, Atala beat the fierce Bayer Leverkusen to win the Europa League, while Fiorentina won the UEFA Cup runners-up.
But unfortunately, in the first knockout game of this European Cup, the Italian team was completely defeated by the Swiss team, becoming the first team to be eliminated in the round of 16, and the defending champion fell to the ground! The match laid bare the problems of Italian football – mediocre players, rough technique, chaotic organisation...... It can be said that you have lost decently! What is happening to Italian football, once regarded as the pinnacle of world football?
The decline of Italian football is a regression of the entire system. Since the "phonegate incident", Serie A has begun to go downhill, and its influence has not only been far removed by the Premier League, but now it is even inferior to the Bundesliga and La Liga.
The sinking of Serie A has led to major problems in broadcasting rights, discourse rights, and wealth distribution. Forbes counted the current TV rights value of the five major leagues this year, and the Premier League ranked first with an average of $4.215 billion per year, La Liga and the Bundesliga ranked second and third, while Serie A's TV rights averaged only $1.193 billion per year, down 15.8% from the previous contract!
According to the TV revenue allocated to each team in the 2022/2023 Serie A season, Inter Milan (87.1 million euros), Napoli (80.3 million euros), AC Milan (80 million euros), Juventus (78.6 million euros), Lazio (70.7 million euros), Roma (68.2 million euros) These traditional powerhouses take a large part of the proportion. Last year, Cremo, the lowest TV broadcast earner, was less than 30 million euros, so many Serie A teams are actually in serious losses.
The cake of Serie A is getting smaller and smaller, which will inevitably lead to most teams not having enough to eat. In the case that many clubs are struggling to survive, it is natural that there is not enough money to invest in youth training. As a result, Italian football has relied on veterans for a long time in recent years, neglecting the development of young players. The reason why Italy won the last European Championship was due to the "two old men" of Chiellini and Bonucci - Italy drew three of their four games in the knockout round, including the final against England. If it weren't for the "two elders" who fought hard in the last tournament of their careers, it would have been difficult for the Italian team to create a miracle of winning the championship.
Chiellini (No. 3) and Leonardo Bonucci (No. 19) Photo by IC photo
In this European Cup, when there are no veterans such as Chiellini, Bonucci, and Immobile, the competitiveness of the Italian team has become quite limited. Coupled with the fact that the national team is relatively weak in technical and tactical innovation and coping ability, the team does not have a new technical and tactical concept and talented players to maintain combat effectiveness. The loss to Spain in the group stage of this European Championship and the defeat to Switzerland in the knockout round have exposed the problem of the Italian team's overall backwardness.
Ancelotti, the world-class coach who is currently in charge of Real Madrid, pointed out that although five teams in Serie A have reached the finals of the three major European competitions in the past two seasons, only Atalanta has won the Europa League, mainly because there is only one superstar left in Italian football - Donnarumma, and he is still playing in Paris! The Italian goalkeeper has indeed shown his value in this cup, especially against Spain in the group stage, if it weren't for Donnarumma's bravery, I don't know what he would have been like by the bullfighters who flew on both wings!
It is undoubtedly a fool's dream to rely on a goalkeeper to achieve good results in international competitions. The early exit of this European Championship will inevitably trigger a deep reflection on Italian football, but if it cannot be comprehensively innovated and improved from the training system of grassroots football to the competitive level of professional leagues, and look for new development opportunities on a global scale, it is unlikely that Italian football will turn around in a short period of time.
Red Star News reporter Jiang Shan
Edited by Ou Peng
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