Football Italia
| Football Italia | |
|---|---|
| Format | Football |
| Starring | James Richardson (1992-2007) Mark Chapman (2007-2008) Laura Esposto (2007-2008) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | S4C (1988-1990) Sky Sports (1990-1992) Channel 4 (1992-2002) British Eurosport (2002-2005) Bravo (2005-2006) Setanta Sports (2005-2007) Five (2007-2008) |
| Picture format | 4:3, 16:9 |
| Original run | 6 September 1992[1] – 2008 |
Football Italia was a television programme in the United Kingdom showing Italian football that ran from 1992 to 2008. It was known as Football Italiano in its final season.
The show started in 1992 on Channel 4, centering around live coverage of Serie A football, the top division in the Italian league system. James Richardson presented the show for a large part of its existence.
The first live match shown was between Sampdoria and Lazio, on 6 September 1992, it ended in a 3–3 draw and drew 3 million viewers. In August 2005, the programme moved to Bravo, where it showed one season and a half, before moving to Setanta Sports. Five owned the rights for the 2007/08 season:[2] 26 August 2007 was the exact return date of the show, and the show was broadcasted weekly from 1:30pm Sunday afternoon GMT.[3] The show's end was announced on 27 June 2008, on the Football Italiano website. The message, posted by James Sugure, read: "Unfortunately, it is now unlikely that Five will be continuing their Football Italiano television coverage of Serie A for the 2008-09 season. As a result, this website will now be suspended until further notice. On behalf of all the team here at Football Italiano, I would like to thank you for your support over the last year."[4]
Contents |
[edit] History
Football Italia was started as a response to three factors: Sky had taken live English top-flight football off free-to-air terrestrial television, hugely popular England player Paul Gascoigne had transferred to Lazio and S4C's European football programme, Sgorio, had good ratings. Many of the world's best players were playing in Italy's Seria A, where clubs were paying spectacularly high transfer fees for star signings. The quality of English football was seen as lower, partially due to the ban on its clubs playing against European teams thatd had been brought on by hooliganism.
[edit] BSB/Sky (1990-1992)
British Satellite Broadcasting first brought live Italian football to a small number of British homes with squarials in 1990, when it showed live games on The Sports Channel. Soon, BSB was officially merged with (in reality taken over by) Sky, which showed Italian games in the early days of Sky Sports, but when the Premier League came into being, Sky now had live top-flight English football every week of the season, and dropped Serie A. Channel 4 acquired the rights to broadcast Serie A in the United Kingdom.
[edit] Channel 4 (1992-2002)
In 1992 came the most seismic shift in the history of televised sport in Britain. The newly formed FA Premier League sold its live rights to Sky Sports with the BBC buying the highlights to herald the return of Match of the Day every Saturday night, while ITV claimed the lower divisions and the new Champions League. All of which meant a gap on Sunday afternoons for live football on terrestrial television.
Television production company Chrysalis had worked with Paul Gascoigne on a documentary about his return from injury called Gascoigne – The Fightback. In the documentary, Gascoigne said that it was a shame that nobody in the United Kingdom would be able to see his Serie A games. Chrysalis approached the Italian Football Federation regarding UK broadcast rights for the Lazio games. The Federation were unwilling to offer the rights to just Lazio’s games, but encouraged a bid for the rights to show all Serie A games.[5]
Channel 4 had only brief experience of showing football. Martin Tyler had reported on the 1983 Brazilian Cup Final, while in 1985, Channel 4 carried ITV’s live coverage of a World Cup qualifier between Australia and Scotland.
Channel 4 paid £1.5m for the rights to Serie A and on 6 September 1992, it transmitted its first live Italian match – Sampdoria v Lazio. Gascoigne did not play due to injury, but the broadcast had three million viewers. Veteran broadcaster Kenneth Wolstenholme linked off screen, and Peter Brackley and Paul Elliott commentated.
In its original incarnation, Football Italia consisted of two programmes: Gazzetta, a Saturday-morning programme voiced by Kenneth Wolstenholme, and a live match on Sunday afternoon commentated by Peter Brackley. Gazzetta contained the highlights of the previous week's matches and a piece on Italian culture. The former would also consist of interviews with players, often Gascoigne, usually walking around an Italian city. These were often deliberately humorous, such as when Richardson performed the Lambada with Attilio Lombardo. A regular part of the show had Richardson explaining football stories from Italian newspapers as he sat in the sunshine outside a café. During the last series, which was broadcast in the early hours of the morning, Richardson sat at a café outside the Pantheon, usually in front of a large ice cream or dessert, and a proportion of each course would vanish between each set of match highlights.
For the 2000/2001 season, the Sunday afternoon live games became more infrequent. The most telling sign came when Channel 4 abandoned coverage of the title decider in 2001 with seven minutes remaining, the match having been disrupted by a pitch invasion by fans of Roma. Just 12 months earlier, Channel 4 had accommodated schedule changes when Juventus’ title bid was held up by a rainstorm. The following season, live coverage was abandoned altogether.
[edit] British Eurosport (2002-2005)
After Channel 4 dropped Italian football; British Eurosport bought the Serie A rights from the middle of the 2002–03 season and held onto the rights until 2005.
[edit] Bravo and Setanta (2005-2007)
Bravo and Setanta Sports covered Serie A under a joint agreement from 2005 to the end of the 2006–07 season.[6] After poor viewing figures, Bravo discountinued their coverage on 23 December 2006. The 2006 Serie A scandal had tarnished the league's reputation and had forcibly relegated top club Juventus.
[edit] Five (2007-2008)
Five gained the rights to broadcast Serie A highlights and live games in the 2007–08 season.[7] The show thus returned to terrestrial television and live games were shown again at 1:30pm on Sundays, as the original series on Channel 4.
Under the new name of Football Italiano the show was presented by Mark Chapman and Laura Esposto. The first game shown was a 1–1 draw between Inter Milan and Udinese on Sunday, 26 August 2007 with John Barnes and Tony Jones as the commentators.
The opening theme song in this version of the show was Phantom pt. II by Justice.
On 27 June 2008, it was reported on the Football Italiano site that it looked likely that Five would not be continuing with their television coverage of Serie A for the 2008-09 season. As a result, the Football Italiano website was suspended.
[edit] Legacy
Italian football was absent from British TV for the 2008-09 season, other than live coverage of the Milan derby on BBC Three. Since the 2009/10 season, coverage of Serie A has been on ESPN. They show three live games per week during the Serie A season.[8] ESPN do not however use the Football Italia title for their programmes.
At its peak in the 1990s, Football Italia attracted over 3 million viewers, and remains the most watched programme in the UK about a non-British domestic football league.[9] Presenter James Richardson was popular for his humour and his ability to avoid many of the cliches of football presenting.[9] Since Football Italia launched, a number of other European domestic leagues have now been broadcast on British television. Ultimately, the series' popularity fell as Italian football slipped behind first Spanish and then English in the UEFA Coefficients and the perceived level of quality.[9] In particular, the end of the show coincided with the 2006 Italian football scandal, and a loss in reputation for Italian club football.
[edit] Golaço!
The show became well known in popular culture for a shout of Golaço!, Brazilian Portuguese for 'fantastic goal', featured at the start and at the end of each show. The sound clip is of Italian television football commentator José Altafini, a Brazilian who played in Serie A for AC Milan, Napoli and Juventus.[10].
"Golaço!" was commonly misinterpreted as "Goal Lazio!" and transcribed as "Golaccio!" in the show's titles.[10]
[edit] Theme Tune
In 1992, the theme tune to the show was adapted with the addition of vocals to become "I'm Stronger Now" by Definitive Two. The shout of "Golaço!" featured in the show's start and end titles was omitted.
[edit] Channels featured on
Football Italia has been shown on the following channels throughout its history:
Five: 2007–08
Bravo/Setanta Sports: 2005–06, 2006–07
British Eurosport: Midway through 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05
Channel 4: 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00, 2000–01, 2001–02
BSB/Sky: 1990-91, 1991-92
S4C: 1988-89, 1989-90
[edit] References
- ^ Arrivederci, James, and thanks for the memories The Guardian, 20 December 2006
- ^ "TV details: Armchair fans, have no fear". Football Italia. Archived from the original on 22 August 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070822070852/http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/c4update.html. Retrieved 31 August 2007.
- ^ SportBusiness.com Serie A returns to UK terrestrial TV live on Five
- ^ Football Italiano website
- ^ [1] Part Two (1992 – 2002): “I Didn’t Get Off Massively on Saint and Greavsie” offthetelly.co.uk, December 2002
- ^ Bravo to air Football Italia DigitalSpy, 5 August 2005
- ^ Channel Five snaps up Italian Football Guardian, 12 June 2007
- ^ "ESPN secures Serie A TV rights". Digital Spy. 5 August 2009. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a169521/espn-secures-serie-a-tv-rights.html.
- ^ a b c Arrivederci, James, and thanks for the memories Ingle, James. The Guardian. 20-12-06. Accessed 16-09-11
- ^ a b The earliest ever kick-off The Guardian - The Knowledge
[edit] External links
- The official Football Italiano site from Giuseppe Pisaniello
- The official Football Italiano site from five.tv
- Italian football with Football Italiano
- Sport - Football Italia at Channel4.com
- Bravo's Website
- Guardian Unlimited feature on end of Gazetta Football Italia
- I'm Stronger Now by Definitive Two
- Football Italia at the Internet Movie Database
