channel4.com - Football Italia


Then and now: Changing days
It was only 16 years ago, but the football world was a very unfamiliar landscape back in 1992. Steve Wilson takes a look at how Serie A has evolved since Calcio Italia's debut season



Things were very different back on September 6, 1992. Silvio Berlusconi was still just a calcio-obsessed media mogul, Sky Sports had only just bagged the rights to live top Division English football - thus depriving UK fans of Sunday afternoon football on terrestrial TV - and I was just a 13-year-old lad, settling down with my roast dinner to watch the new alternative - Channel 4's Football Italia. It was quite an opener as well, the 3-3 draw between Sampdoria and Lazio blowing away pre-conceptions of Italian football as dull and defensive. Like many younger viewers, my experiences of the game on the peninsula at that stage had been limited to the Azzurri's performances at Euro '88 and Italia '90, coupled with the occasional late night highlights of Ian Rush's stint at Juventus or Milan's European Cup exploits on Midweek Sport Special. It was all Toto Schillaci, Roberto Baggio and Luciano Pavarotti. To see a full live game from a foreign country on TV, with all the lesser lights and journeymen as well as the star names, was an unbelievable treat - the importance of which is probably hard to comprehend in the satellite saturated age we now inhabit. Watching a tape of that opening match today, the plethora of changes that have been made to our game in such a relatively short period of time would amaze modern viewers. Looking out on to the pitch you would notice the shirts numbered one to 11, traditionally with the low numbers in defence and the high numbers in attack. The players still retained a modicum of anonymity, as names were not plastered over their shoulders - squad numbers and printed names were not introduced until 1995. Even the ball was different, as each club had their own elaborate design rather than them all kicking the same generic Nike sphere. The League itself was also a completely dissimilar proposition. Instead of the 20 teams we know today there were just 18, while four teams fell through the trapdoor to Serie B rather than the more forgiving trio that face that fate now and only two points were available for a win. The fledgling back-pass rule had only just been introduced to world football - leading to the odd comical moment where hapless goalkeepers forgot the change and picked up the ball to concede a mayhem-inducing indirect free-kick. Serie A was awash with money and was arguably the richest League in the world. The summer preceding the 1992-93 season had seen Milan break the world transfer record by splashing out £13m on Torino winger Gianluigi Lentini, just a week after Juventus paid £12m for Gianluca Vialli. It was also a time when the clubs wielded the power over their players rather than the other way round. The Bosman rule was still three years away, meaning Presidents didn't have to worry about temperamental players holding them to ransom in order to secure a big pay day on a free transfer. During this era, all the top-flight clubs were still bringing in cash from their collective TV deal - not until 1999 did the split come that allowed each club to ink their own package, effectively driving an even bigger financial wedge between the glamour sides and the regional minnows. The referees were still doing their day job as well as blowing the whistle, although Italy was the first top League to eventually introduce professional officials. Current refereeing designator Pierluigi Collina was just starting his second season as a Serie A referee, while also working as a financial advisor. Viewers in that first season will have had extra impetus to tune in as three of England's national side competed in Serie A. To put it into a modern context, the sight of Paul Gascoigne, David Platt and Des Walker turning out on TV for Italian clubs would be like tuning in to Channel Five today to see Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard and John Terry competing on the peninsula. In those early days it really was the cream of English football trying their luck - not the trickle of also-rans we witnessed later in the 1990s, such as Lee Sharpe, Daniele Dichio and Jay Bothroyd. There are some things still the same, however. Cynics would suggest that certain decaying stadiums haven't moved on and improved, while the end of the season saw the same familiar names in the leading placings - only Parma have faded from the Scudetto picture. The trappings and exterior appearance may have altered drastically, but the basics remain the same. The passion and drama that first drew in UK audiences in 1992 is still there and will keep on attracting new fans each week as long as the coverage continues.

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