Less than four months after their World Cup triumph, Italy's
top-flight attendances have reached their lowest ebb since
1970
Not even a World Cup triumph has reversed the decline. Just three
and a half months after 500,000 fans poured onto the streets of
Rome to acclaim Marcello Lippi's side, attendances in Italy's top
flight have dropped to their lowest since 1970 - an average of just
19,511 after seven games. That's barely half the Premiership
average of 34,084 so far this season, and only marginally better
than the Championship's 17,368. Perhaps most worrying of all, it
also represents an 8.7% fall on the same period last season.
The figures are shocking, inconceivable in a country where football
has always been so intrinsic to the national psyche, and where a
ticket for next week's Milan derby - one of the biggest on the
European calendar - can be bought for as little as 14 euros. The
gut reaction is to blame the drop-off on this summer's other
events, namely the match-fixing scandal which undermined years of
supporters' financial and emotional investment in their clubs.
Things are not so simple. Serie A attendances have been on the
slide since the 1997-98 season. At worst Calciopoli accelerated an
existing trend.
As former Italy manager Arrigo Sacchi points out in his column in
today's La Gazzetta Dello Sport the current predicament is far too
complex to be attributed to a single cause. Fans have to contend
with stadiums that are "tired, obsolete, inhospitable and
structured like the Colosseum", points out Sacchi, as well as the
increased presence of violent, often racist Ultras, who make life
miserable for moderate fans and "would not have a place in any part
of civilised Europe". The clubs themselves have alienated
supporters, argues Sacchi, not only by fixing matches (the
Calciopoli scandal is not the first - Genoa were relegated for a
similar offence in 2004), but also by faking passports for players
and repeatedly mismanaging their finances, with a succession of
clubs having gone bankrupt only to rise from the dead under a
minimally changed name.
If ever there was a time for Italian football to get its act
together and make a concerted effort to win back the fans, then it
must be now, in the post-Moggi climate, where everything is still
up for grabs. Sadly, with the unifying force of the World Cup
already fading from memory, it already looks like another missed
opportunity.
