Serie A club Lazio have revealed their 2011/2012 kits.

German sports goods manufacturer Puma supplies the kits for Rome based club. Lazio stood fifth last season above their fierce rivals Roma and both clubs have qualified for the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League play-off round.

The club president Claudio Lotito has claimed not to ‘sell’ the shirts to any brand and Lazio has been without a shirt sponsor for the last four years. But the news is, Lazio will be bearing the UNICEF logo in front of their shirts. Spanish club Barcelona had hosted UNICEF since 2006 until the end of this season.

Just like Barca, Lazio will not receive money from this deal, rather it will give a grant to UNICEF as did Barca.

Take a look at the home, away and third shirts:

Home

The shirt is blue with a white collar. The shirts in the images do not carry the UNICEF logo. Lazio will wear white shorts with it.

SS Lazio 2011/12 Home Shirt

Away

Following the Puma King features, the away shirt is white with two diagonal stripes on the chest – one is blue and the other is gold. The away shorts will also be white.

SS Lazio 2011/12 Away Shirt

Third

The shirt follow the same design features as the away shirt but it is a dark blue shirt with white top and blue and gold diagonal stripes. The shorts will also be dark blue.

SS Lazio 2011/12 Third Shirt

Home, Away & Third Kits

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Player transfer fees and their larger than life wage bills are a common topic of discussion for a football fan of today. From Wayne Rooney threatening to quit to oil-rich owners going on shopping sprees, the footballers have now become spoilt and they now know that their high demands will be met at their current club or the next.

It is especially easy to get a huge wage offer for those who possess skill and/or experience. Yaya Toure moved from Spain to England with a wage demand that even England’s best Rooney was not getting at the time.

For the smaller clubs, it has become far more difficult to move into the top-flight and pose a threat to the top teams in their own country, let alone go on a Euro trip.

We have taken the liberty to skim out the football clubs out of the ESPN’s 200 best-paying teams in the world and present a list to you of 66 best-paying football teams in the world.

If you’re gifted with football, this is who will show you the money:

The Leagues and Countries: Bundesliga (Germany), EPL (English Premier League, England), La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy) & SPL (Scottish Premier League, Scotland).

Also see: Best Paid Footballers By Country

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

There are just eight rounds remaining in Italy’s Serie A this season, and as Milan, Inter and Napoli battle it out for the Scudetto, here we have a look at which club will join them in Europe’s premier football competition, the UEFA Champions League, next season.

Here are the contenders:

Udinese (4^th, 56pts)

Remaining fixtures:
v Lecce (away)
v Roma (home)
v Napoli (away)
v Parma (home)
v Fiorentina (away)
v Lazio (home)
v Chievo (away)
v Milan (home)

Chances of finishing in fourth: Udinese have a very tough run home, and simply must kick it off with a win away to a struggling Lecce side next weekend. Fortunately for their sake, they are in control of their own destiny, and know that if they avoid any form of major disaster, fourth place is well within their reach.

Key match: v Roma (home) – Should the Bianconeri overcome the Romans, they will all but assure themselves of fourth place, as their lead over the Giallorossi could be extended to a hefty margin with just six rounds to play.

Predictions: A lot depends on the result against Roma, however a tough run home will take its toll on the team that will narrowly be edged out for the final CL place.

5^th, 67pts

Lazio (5^th, 54pts)

Remaining fixtures:
v Napoli (away)
v Parma (home)
v Catania (away)
v Inter (away)
v Juventus (home)
v Udinese (away)
v Genoa (home)
v Lecce (away)

Chances of finishing in fourth: Lazio certainly have the toughest run home of all their rivals, as three of their four road trips are against the top four sides. In order to keep themselves in the race for fourth, they will need to obtain at least a result from a couple of those matches, however their chances aren’t great.

Key match: v Udinese (away) – This may be the game that makes or breaks the Aquile’s season. Whether it be to assure themselves of Europa League qualification, or maintain the pace with their opponents for fourth, this match is destined to be a pivotal one.

Predictions: Lazio have had a brilliant season and should be proud of their efforts. Unfortunately though, they will not feature in next season’s Champions League.

6^th, 66pts

Roma (6^th, 50pts)

Remaining fixtures:
v Juventus (home)
v Udinese (away)
v Palermo (home)
v Chievo (home)
v Bari (away)
v Milan (home)
v Catania (away)
v Sampdoria (home)

Chances of finishing fourth: Roma will desperately want to reclaim a place in next season’s Champions League, and will throw everything at it in the final eight rounds of the season. Not having many players involved in international fixtures over the next fortnight will work in their favour, as they simply must remain unbeaten in the final eight fixtures, if they wish to achieve their goal.

Key match: v Juventus (home) – Anything but a win in this match could effectively end any hope they have of finishing fourth. If their deficit to Udinese were to extend any further, then it would cap off one of the most disappointing seasons in the club’s recent history.

Predictions: Plenty at stake for the Giallorossi against Juve, and even more the following week against Udinese. If they can obtain at least four points from these two matches, pencil them in to finish off the season on a high.

4^th, 68pts

Juventus (7^th, 45pts)

Remaining fixtures:
v Roma (away)
v Genoa (home)
v Fiorentina (away)
v Catania (home)
v Lazio (away)
v Chievo (home)
v Parma (away)
v Napoli (home)

Chances of finishing fourth: Whilst there is belief amongst the Juventus squad that fourth is a realistic possibility, in reality, they have no chance whatsoever. Not even winning all eight matches would guarantee them progression to the Champions League next season, however similar to Roma; they are a very proud club that will continue to fight until the end.

Key match: v Roma (away) – Similar to the Romans, if they want to have any chance of claiming fourth, this is a match that they can ill afford to lose. They must look to continue the resilience they showed against Brescia last weekend, and maintain that for the remainder of the campaign.

Predictions: Juve will struggle to finish in the top six, let alone the top four, and so the club should direct all of its attention to qualifying for the Europa League once again next season.

7^th, 60pts

Be sure to follow me on twitter: twitter.com/adriandelmonte

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Fierce and ecstatic as usual, the Rome Derby delivered with the utmost excitement and flare in front of goal in the tightly fought 2-1 win for Roma in the Coppa Italia.

Goals came from two penalties put away by Marco Borriello for Roma and Hernanes for Lazio and the decisive goal from Fabio Simplicio.

Roma 2-1 Lazio

ROM 1-0 LAZ: Borriello (pen.), 53′
ROM 1-1 LAZ: Hernanes (pen.), 58′
ROM 2-1 LAZ: Simplicio, 77′

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Unsurprisingly, cash-gorged Manchester City have dominated the footballing transfer market in 2010, shunting a combined total of somewhere up around the €350 million mark in fees and transfers into the global market between January 1st and the present day as owner Sheikh Mansour continues to feed his foray into capitalism on a gargantuan scale.

There are also a few cheeky appearances in the standings from Spanish champions Barcelona, which is fairly surprising considering that, to the best of my knowledge, they haven’t had a ceramic vessel to urinate in for quite some time now!

Soccerlens presents: The top 10 transfers of 2010…

10. Javier Mascherano, Liverpool to Barcelona (€21.2 million)

After using almost every trick in the book to force a move to Barca for ‘his wife’s sake’, Monster Mash has had to be content with a fairly peripheral existence at the Camp Nou so far – with the consistent form of Catalan anchor Sergio Busquets allowing the Argentinian only the merest of sniffs in terms of first-team action.

Liverpool Transfers | Barcelona Transfers

9. Bruno Alves, Benfica to Zenit St. Petersburg (€21.4 million)

There was a time when all and sundry were queuing up for Alves’ services but Benfica’s ridiculously inflated asking price ensured that only a club funded by a bottomless vat of Russian ‘gaz-dollars’ could afford to make the swoop for the tough-tackling Portuguese centre-back.

Lyon unveil their summer signing Yoann Gourcuff

8. Yoann Gourcuff, Bordeaux to Lyon (€22 million)

Zinedine Zidane’s one-time ‘heir apparent’ has yet to deliver on the huge promise he displayed during his formative years with Rennes, Milan and Bordeaux but that didn’t stop Ligue 1 heavyweights Lyon taking a pricey punt on him finally coming good at the Stade de Gerland when they plundered their league rivals back in August.

Bordeaux Transfers | Lyon Transfers

7. Ramires, Benfica to Chelsea (€22 million)

A sporadically exciting force for the Brazilian national team over the past few years, Benfica made Chelsea haggle hard for a player they themselves only signed the previous summer. The 23-year-old midfielder has undeniably taken his time over settling into life at Stamford Bridge, but there have also been promising, if a little fleeting, glimpses of things yet to come.

Chelsea Transfers

Angel di Maria undergoing his medical at the Bernabeu

6. Angel di Maria, Benfica to Real Madrid (€25 million)

Real went big in their pursuit of the fleet-footed flanker over the course of the summer, finally tying the jinky Argentinian to a five-year deal that could well see his fee rise by another €11 million if Di Maria meets certain performance-based criteria over the course of the deal – and, given the dynamic start that El Angelito has made to his Merengues career, it looks like Florentino Perez may be getting his chequebook out again sooner rather than later.

Real Madrid Transfers

5. James Milner, Aston Villa to Manchester City (€28 million)

The first of Manchester City’s costly summer acquisitions to appear on the list is hard-yarding midfield huffer James Milner, who was finally spirited away from Villa after months of relentlessly turgid speculation linking him with a move to Eastlands – so much so that many people believed he’d actually joined City about three weeks before the deal was officially announced.

Aston Villa Transfers | Manchester City Transfers

4. Yaya Toure, Barcelona to Manchester City (€28.2 million)

Barca yielded their midfield colossus when it came to light that City were ready and willing to fluff millions on a player that was having trouble keeping his place in the first-string at the Camp Nou. There were rumours that the Premier League side had to offer the Ivorian powerhouse a huge £220,000-a-week contract to persuade him to join the club, claims that have since been heavily refuted – but not altogether disproved.

Manchester City pair Mario Balotelli and Roberto Mancini

3. Mario Balotelli, Inter Milan to Manchester City (€29.5 million)

City manager Roberto Mancini had his work cut out in trying to persuade his superiors that a big-money move for his one-time Inter protege was going to be worth the hassle, but the Italian’s were eventually reunited in August. A series of repetitive knee problems and self-imposed suspensions have seen the stroppy striker’s impact considerably restricted at Eastlands so far, though he has managed to notch five goals in his first seven games.

Inter Milan Transfers

2. David Silva, Valencia to Manchester City (€32 million)

City again flexed their considerable financial muscle in steering Silva from the clutches of a phalanx of more ‘prestigious’ suitors, and are finally beginning to reap dividends. The diminutive tyro struggled to justify his price tag during his first couple of months in the Premier League, but the nifty Spaniard has since burgeoned into one of City’s main (or should that be ‘only’) creative forces.

Valencia Transfers

1. David Villa, Valencia to Barcelona (€40 million)

El Guaje‘s move to La Liga giants Barca was undoubtedly the blockbuster move of the summer and, by proxy, of 2010 in general. After sticking with Valencia through nigh-on five years of financial turmoil, the gifted forward finally made the move he was always destined to in mid-May – a move which now ranks as the seventh most expensive transfer of all time.

Just outside the top ten: Robinho (Man City to Milan), Aleksandar Kolarov (Lazio to Man City), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona to Milan), Diego (Juventus to Wolfsburg), Milos Krasic (CSKA to Juventus), Sami Khedira (Stuttgart to Real Madrid), Asamoah Gyan (Rennes to Sunderland), Leonardo Bonucci (Bari to Juventus) Loic Remy (Nice to Marseille).

Also see: Detailed league-by-league & club-by-club transfer lists.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

With the transfer window now ready and open for business Soccerlens looks at the possible comings and goings at some of Europe’s top domestic leagues.

Italy, Serie A

AC Milan look to be one of the busiest clubs in Italy this January as they prepare themselves to tie down Antonio Cassano from Sampdoria. The Italian international had been in revelling form for i Blucerchiati up until his falling out with president Riccardo Garrone.

Former World Player of the Year Ronaldinho looks set to return to Brazil after a decade of enthralling us all in Europe with his scintillating flair and prowess. Gremio are keen to lure him back to the club where it all started for the toothy Brazilian. You will be missed Ronnie!

Champions Inter under the stewardship of new Coach Leonardo have already wrapped up the signing of defender Andrea Ranocchia who arrives from Genoa. The Nerazzurri are also contemplating a move for Chievo starlet Kevin Constant who has had a fantastic season thus far with The Flying Donkeys.

Roque Santa Cruz of Manchester City has his heart set on a move to Italy with a host of interested parties including Lazio and Juventus. A stumbling block however is the Paraguayan’s determination to move on a permanent contract rather than a short-term loan. It is questionable whether or not anyone is willing to pay an inflated price for his services.

Spain, Primera Liga

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho hasn’t disguised the fact that he is keen to bolster his squad with the arrival of a new striker. This is all the more evident following the injury layoff to Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema being the only recognised available striker with pedigree.  The largely talented Fernando Llorente at Athletic Bilbao is widely tipped to make a move to the Spanish capital and his centre forward prowess will compare to that of Didier Drogba and Diego Milito who Mourinho utilised spectacularly during his days at Chelsea and Inter Milan.

The Whites however will have the joy of bringing Kaka back to the fold who is ready to return to action following a five month injury layoff. This will be like a new signing in itself.

Barcelona have already conducted a piece of business by luring the largely talented Ibrahim Afellay from PSV Eindhoven. Sporting Director Andoni Zubizarreta has already stated that the champions don’t intend to make any more signings.

Germany, Bundesliga

Champions Bayern Munich have had a disappointing start to their Bundesliga title defence and are expected to up their chase for Hoffenheim’s Luiz Gustavo as a long term replacement for the ageing Mark van Bommel. The Bavarians are also courting Swiss starlet Xherdan Shaquiri who is continuously linked with a move to Munich.

Raul may be joined at Schalke by his former teammate at Real Madrid Ezequiel Garay. The Miners have been leaking goals for fun this season and see the Argentine defender as an ideal recruit to prevent this mishap. Garay may make the move for as little as €5million.

France, Ligue 1

There may be a number of departures from Ligue 1 this month with a host of their top talent being linked with moves overseas. Lyon’s Jean Makoun is continuously linked with a move to Aston Villa where he could link up with former Les Gones coach Gerard Houllier and Bordeaux’s talented captain Alou Diarra is being courted by big spenders Manchester City.

Ivory Coast international Gervinho has also been linked with Aston Villa aswell as Liverpool in recent weeks. The Lille man has seen his stock rise following his displays in the 2010 FIFA World Cup last summer.

Lille however are looking to press their title credentials with the signing of Nadir Belhadj from Al Sadd in Qatar.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

Welcome to Fergie Time, a roundup/newsletter type deal that delivers news, opinion and links directly to your screen. As the name suggests, there will be some exaggeration, nsfw moments, canceled press conferences (oh, who are we kidding) and late, late, late scoring of points. You’ll like it, trust me.

THE NANI STATE:

It’s old news now, but there are two things worth pointing out about Nani’s controversial goal vs Spurs last weekend.

#1 It was Heurelho Gomes’ fault, not Mark Clattenburg’s. The Spurs keeper put the ball down to take a free kick that hadn’t been given, so only has himself to blame.

#2 Nani showed some quick thinking to take advantage and score, and is now a regular provider of goals and assists for Manchester United. But this controversy also feels like another step up the career ladder for the Portuguese winger. If Nani can attract this much attention with one kick of a ball, then he may as well change his name to Cristiano Ronaldo.

PODCAST:

Two big questions in football: Is Roberto Mancini about to get sacked at Man City? And why have Liverpool employed Damian Commoli? Regulars Adrian Clarke, Spraggy and Macca debate this and more in episode 12 of the 3 Up Front podcast.

OLYMPIC BALE OUT:

If Nani was the big story from last weekend, then Gareth Bale was the big story of midweek. After roasting Maicon and the rest of the treble winning Inter team on Tuesday, I think it’s safe to say that Gareth Bale is the most exciting player in British football right now.

Which should have been the occasion for a nation (or four nations, depending on your politics) to get excited about football at the London 2012 Olympics. Welshman Bale will be 23 when the tournament comes around, and a perfect candidate to represent Team Great Britain. That is, if Team GB was actually Team GB, and not just Team England (because no one else wants to play with us).

No worries though, I’m sure Bale will have plenty of opportunities to compete in high profile international tournaments with Wales…

SOCCERLENS BABE OF THE MONTH:

Heather Mitts is not a WAG or a reporter but an actual proper footballer. Mitts plays in defence for Philadelphia Independence and the US Women’s national team, and looks mighty fine while doing so.

AWARDS:

Fakest birth certificate: There is no way Pippo Inzaghi is 37 years old. No way. Because if he was, then he would have retired from football by now instead of playing for Milan in the Champions League and breaking goalscoring records.

Easily the best thing I’ve seen this week… …is Czech third division team SK Líšeň, because when their centre-half kicked the ball in the air and shouted “Kotoul!” (Roll!), all 11 players did just that, executing simultaneous forward rolls, and then continuing to play. This is the sort of thing you can only do when leading 3-0.

Ross and Rachel award for best will-they won’t-they? couple: Zinedine Zidane and Marco Materazzi. The reported hug of forgiveness and friendship between the 2006 World Cup headbutter and headbuttee apparently did not happen. Because everyone knows that once they finally get together, the show’s over.

THE BIG MATCH:

In England it’s Liverpool vs Chelsea, in what would have been a bona fide Big Four Megamatch just eighteen months ago, but now feels more like Liverpool’s chance to maintain membership of that club. Which maybe makes this game even more interesting than usual.

Elsewhere, it’s the Rome derby: Lazio vs. Roma, where we’ll find out whether Lazio miss their lucky eagle (who’s not allowed in the stadium for this game) more than Roma miss their captain (who’s not allowed on the pitch due to suspension).

SOCCERLENS BET OF THE WEEK:

Chelsea to beat Liverpool. In both halves. Ouch.

FANTASY FOOTBALL:

It’s week 11 of the Soccerlens Fantasy Football Game, a weekly game with weekly cash prizes. There’s no long term commitment, just a chance to turn your football knowledge into a weekly ker-ching noise. Pick your team and play this weekend.

FINALLY, DON’T FORGET:

Fergie Time is only a small part of the Soccerlens experience. You can also follow us on Twitter, find us on Facebook, watch us on YouTube and subscribe to our RSS.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

England

Tottenham In Diarra Talks

As reported here, Tottenham have been in talks over a move to land former Chelsea, Arsenal, and Portsmouth midfielder Lassana Diarra, who could be surplus to requirements at Real Madrid. (The Guardian)

Analysis: Diarra’s wages could perhaps hinder this one, but could there be a ‘hey, I helped you get those wages in the first place’ discount for Harry Redknapp? After not making a breakthrough at either Chelsea or Arsenal, Diarra flourished in his short time at Pompey, and with limited opportunities likely awaiting him at Real this season, this would be a good move for him if it can happen.

Fulham Sign Halliche

Fulham have signed defender Rafik Halliche from Benfica for an undisclosed fee. The 23-year-old, who featured for Algeria at the 2010 World Cup, has penned a three-year deal with the Cottagers. (The Guardian)

Analysis: Halliche was a key figure in an Algeria defense that made quite an impression in South Africa, and with the experience he gained in going up against England, he‘ll come into the Premier League with at least a little knowledge of what to expect – and with a few players not looking forward to facing him,

Leeds Close On McCormack

Leeds United have agreed a fee with Cardiff City for striker Ross McCormack. The 24-year-old scored 21 league goals for Cardiff in the 2008/09 season, but he didn‘t start regularly last season and scored only four goals in 37 league appearances. (Sky Sports)

Analysis: Leeds still have a hole to fill after Jermaine Beckford’s departure to Everton, and McCormack can certainly fill it. Things have dropped off for him after his breakout season, but the opportunity to start on a regular basis again will pay great dividends for both McCormack and Leeds.

Spain

Alexis Set For Sevilla

With Sebastien Squillaci set to sign for Arsenal soon, Sevilla have already lined up his replacement, agreeing a deal for Valencia defender Alexis Ruano. (Sky Sports)

Analysis: Given how Sevilla surrendered four goals yesterday in getting eliminated from the Champions League by Braga, this one didn’t go through nearly fast enough. He can play both in the center and on the left, and all the better if he can somehow be in two places at once, given yesterday’s showing.

Italy

Juventus Target Di Natale

Udinese president Franco Soldati has revealed that Juventus are interested in striker Antonio Di Natale. (Sky Sports)

Analysis: Seeing the summer transfer lists makes for disheartening reading for Udinese supporters, and adding their captain and top scorer to the bunch of top players that Udinese have let go of over the last couple of summers would be a real blow to any hope that the club has this season of making a run at European football. He’s said that he has no desire to leave, so that should be that, hopefully.

Lazio Make Santa Cruz Move

Jan Van Baal, the agent of Manchester City striker Roque Santa Cruz says that Lazio have held talks with City about a deal for his client and that an offer of 6m euros (4.8m pounds) was in the offing. (Sky Sports)

Analysis: Lazio were one of the better defensive sides in Serie A last season, but despite the presence of some decent forwards, they scored the fourth-fewest goals in the league. Santa Cruz, if he can rediscover his scoring touch, could be the difference in another finish in the bottom half of the table and challenging for European football.

Napoli Near Sosa Deal

Napoli have agreed a fee with Bayern Munich for Argentine midfielder Jose Ernesto Sosa. The 25-year-old hasn‘t had a significant impact at Bayern since a 6m move from Estudiantes La Plata in 2007, and he spent part of last season on loan at his former club. (Sky Sports)

Analysis: This could prove to be a nice bargain signing for Napoli. With the pieces that they already have, they should be one of the top attacking sides in Serie A this season, but it doesn’t hurt at all to add some extra quality.

France

Lyon Swoop For Gourcuff

Lyon have agreed a deal to land France international playmaker Yoann Gourcuff. Bordeaux will receive 22m euros in three installments by December 2012, and they could receive 4.5m more if Gourcuff is sold in the future. (Sky Sports)

Analysis: I knew it was only a matter of time before Gourcuff left Bordeaux, but I’m a little surprised that they’ve sold him to one of their title rivals. If he plays at the level that he did during Bordeaux’s title run two seasons ago, he could be the man to lift Lyon back to the top after two title-less seasons.

Marseille Complete Double Strike Deal

Marseille have completed the signings of strikers Andre-Pierre Gignac from Toulouse and Loic Remy from Nice. (Sky Sports)

Analysis: While Lyon’s move for Gourcuff will help tremendously help their title chances, Marseille’s signings of two of the best strikers in Ligue 1 might mean that they’re still the team to beat, even after their two early defeats.

Russia

Rubin Land Eduardo

Rubin Kazan have signed Brazilian playmaker Carlos Eduardo from Bundesliga side Hoffenheim. Rubin have reportedly paid 20m euros for the 23-year-old, who has penned a four-year deal with the reigning Russian champions. (Sky Sports)

Analysis: Rubin may not be able to catch up with Zenit St. Petersburg domestically, but the addition of Eduardo will help them stay in the hunt for the duration, and it will also help their hopes of being able to advance to the knockout stages of the Champions League in their second go-round in the competition.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

This is a two part article. Continuing from Part I of Football in Italy: Crisis, Problems & Solutions.

Financial Crisis at Club Level

As we said in the first part of this article, Italian soccer crisis does not involve the national teams only, clubs have big problems too. Inter’s executives decided to sell some players due to the UEFA “Financial Fair-Play” that will be operating in the future, and Balotelli himself probably will sign for Manchester City.

This is a bad news: maybe Inter could do more to convince the player to stay, though it seems he wanted to leave; anyway, the bad news is that no other Italian club could afford the striker’s signing costs. Also, the last top players arriving in Italy (we would say the only ones in the last 5 years) are Samuel Eto’o and Wesley Sneijder, but they came as Inter gave Zlatan Ibrahimovic (their best player) up.

Financial fair-play means that costs have to be compared to income, so how can Italian clubs earn more money? Sources are always the same: UEFA (just for the clubs playing the European cups), stadium, merchandising and sponsorship, TV rights. Solutions are so easy to recognize as they are difficult to put into practice.

The rule for a good business management is to have 33% stadium, 33% merchandising and sponsors and 33% TV rights. On the contrary, Italian clubs income is dominated by TV rights, this brings a lot of money but at the same time TV channels decide schedules and clubs activity.

There are games played in January at 8:30 pm in the North of the country with -11°C, pitches unfit to play and of course games become a bad show with empty stands.

Stadia

Regarding stadia, unfortunately we have to take again Germany as a benchmark. In 2009-2010 Bundesliga had an average attendance of about 42,000 against the 24,000 in Serie A or 34,000 in Premier League. It’s not difficult to understand: they have modern, comfortable stadia while in Italy they are old and uncomfortable.

Again, Italian stadia are not owned by the clubs, so they don’t bring them money. There was an exception, the “Stadio del Giglio” of Reggiana Calcio, but they went bankrupt and now it is owned by a trusted in bankruptcy of Reggio Emilia Court.

So, while clubs talk about the stadium each time they lose (there’s been an unforgettable interview to AC Milan CEO, Adriano Galliani, where he said the reason why Milan was knocked-out by Manchester United of the Champions League was that the English own Old Trafford while Milan don’t own San Siro), there have been few steps to the building of new homes for Italian clubs.

The only exception is Juventus: the Black & Whites are supposed to play in their new home as from the 2011-2012 season, they are building their own 40,000 seats stadium on the site of former Juventus home, Stadio Delle Alpi. Generally speaking, no concrete results are obtained by other clubs and words seem to remain useless as often Municipalities – owners of the current stadia – make things difficult for clubs to build a stadium.

For example, Inter Milan’s president Massimo Moratti has often “threatened” to leave Milan and build an arena in the surroundings. Recently, the Municipality of Milan (curiously the Mayor is Moratti’s sister in law) changed its Territorial Plan adding the adjective “public“ to the stadia that may have economic help.

This means 200 million Euro more to spend for Inter, if they want to build their new stadium in the area of a disused Italian army barrack downtown.

Restrictions on Ticket Sale

Another important issue are all the restrictions in ticket sales decided game by game by the Observatory for sports events of the Ministry of Interior. Entire sections closed for visitor fans, due to past rivalries between teams, often for fights outside the stadium (sometimes hundreds of miles far from the place where a game is played), where clubs have no responsibility as they cannot do anything to avoid it.

They should sit around a table with their counterparts and find new solutions. The “Tessera del tifoso” (a card for registered fans that allows to buy tickets for away games and season tickets) could have been a solution but the fans are demonstrating against it, and all the clubs are late in discharging the duties to make it work.

It is perceived as a marketing tool, disguised as a security facility for fans. Anyway, the clubs should be more proactive, while now they are suffering someone else’s decisions with poor results for their accounts.

Marketing, Merchandise, Fake Kits

Last but not least, sponsorships, merchandising and official kits sales. You ought to know that Italian fans are not used to wear official products during everyday life, someone does this at the stadium during the games but it’s still a minority. Second, there’s a big business for unofficial kits that give no money to clubs and it is not fought enough by the Police, normally you can find those “fake” kits and merchandising around the stadium before, during and after the matches.

A lot of clubs, also the biggest ones, have commercial departments that are not on a level with the ones of other top leagues. Think about Inter Milan and the stock-out they had for all the clothes celebrating the Champions League win. And it’s not a case that Mr. Moratti is credited with the statement: «We don’t want to take advantage of fans’ passion».

He should know a lot of fans are happy to spend some money to buy something with the club’s logo and help their turnover to increase. Just to tell a personal experience, some weeks ago I tried to buy a baby kit of my favorite team for my 9 months old son, but in their official website it was sold out and wasn’t available for order too.

Debts and Player Wages vs Sponsorships

We are talking about Serie A giants but, if we go down to lower levels of professional Italian soccer, we find that the situation is much worse. Every year there’s at least one Serie B and many LegaPro (ex Serie C) clubs that disappear for debts.

After the rupture that has brought to creation of two different leagues, Serie B alone found a new sponsor (Bwin) for 2.2 million Euro, but the difficult purpose is to get closer to the English Football League, whose income for the Npower sponsorship is £21 millions for 3 years.

The worse situation is for LegaPro, First and Second Division (level 3 and 4): there, many clubs have to withdraw for economic problems, players (this is also a Serie B problem and sometimes it happens in Serie A) are not regularly paid. For the first time the league decided not to replace all the clubs that withdrew but, despite that, Italy has the biggest amount of professional teams: 127, 11 more than England.

There is a record number of unemployed players, someone thinks of coming back to previous jobs, but AIC has just launched a campaign to have a longer Winter break, in order to give players more time to stay with their family during Christmas holidays.

Winter Break Mismanagement

At the moment, there’s a three weeks break, Italian fans are left without football in a period of the year where they have money to spend and time to have fun: we think they should play more at Christmas time. The problem is that the players’ association doesn’t say when they should play those games: earlier in August? Or maybe seasons should end in June? Should they decrease the amount of professional teams?

The answer to all these questions is no, so a longer winter break means only an incredible concentration of games in an 8 months season, and it’s likely that attendance could even be lower if there are games every 3-4 days, always.

Prosposal

Let’s finish our journey around the situation of Italian soccer with a proposal that for someone sounds like a provocation, but it would give a solution to a couple of problems we’ve found. Big clubs have a great budgets for the entire youth system, a Primavera (20 years old) team costs around 10 million Euros. Why don’t allow these clubs to enter Serie B or LegaPro with a second team (Juventus II, Inter II, etc.)?

Now a player’s path from youth system to big clubs is: he plays in Primavera team two or three years, than a couple of years in a lower level team on loan, to be back to the parent company if he deserves to stay there. With this solution, they could play in Serie B or LegaPro a couple of years earlier and be ready for first team (and obviously for the national team).

This proposal has no hope to pass, but for sure it could be useful to save calcio before it’s too late.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News

The bitter disappointment for the Italian National Team poor figure at the FIFA WC 2010 is just the tip of the iceberg of a crisis that involves all Italian soccer, including clubs. Inter’s win in Champions League came without a single local player on the pitch, but at the same time saved Italy’s fourth spot in the top European competition also for 2011-2012 edition.

However, only a miracle can save Italy from the German overtaking and this is another alarm for the entire world of calcio. Which are main problems, and which solutions can be found?

Italian National Team & Foreign Players in Italian Clubs

First of all, let’s talk about the National Team. The team was knocked out at the first round also because of the wrong choices made by its coach Marcello Lippi. The squad was made up by old and tired players (Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Cannavaro), injured players like Gianluigi Buffon, while many others were not fit to wear the blue jersey.

Of course, during these years there’s also a lack of talents (with some exceptions like Mario Balotelli) especially in key positions like play-makers, goalkeepers (who, after Buffon?) and central strikers. For this reason FIGC (the Italian Football Association) decided to limit the new extra-EU signings just to one, causing a discussion with the newborn Serie A League.

Last July 16, League Chairman Maurizio Beretta did not show up at the Federal Council as a protest against that measure. In Italian soccer history, any flop of the “Azzurri” in a World Cup has had, as a consequence, a restriction on foreign players signing for Italian clubs, but rarely it gave results; often it has been useless and just gave less chances to teams in the European cups.

In my opinion, great players would find space in top clubs and in the national team despite the presence of many foreign players and the ones that agree with any kind of limitation (the AIC, the Italian players association) have just the purpose to keep jobs and high salaries for their associated.

Baggio, Rivera, Sacchi Relaunch Calcio

Many people asked FIGC Chairman, Giancarlo Abete, to resign after the disappointment in South Africa. He didn’t, and at the same time he decided to sign three sacred cows of the Italian soccer in key positions, in order to relaunch calcio and get some results in terms of youth players’ growth.

Roberto Baggio, an icon of calcio during the 1990′s, became President of the Technical Sector. «It’s not just a question of image, Baggio’s role will be operational» Renzo Ulivieri, AIAC (the Italian coaches association) president said.

The appointment of “Il Divin Codino” (the Divine Ponytail) has been warmly welcomed by the public opinion and this is a very good news: in fact, in the past both AIAC and all soccer experts had a very bad opinion of unexperienced coaches in key positions in clubs, Baggio has no experience (he has just obtained the Basic Coaching Certification) and his role is more or less the “coach of all the national teams coaches”, so much more delicate.

Baggio has also stated in the past he would have never accepted a job as a coach, so there can be doubts that his signing is a question of image. On the other hand, Baggio is a reliable man and he would never accept a job if he thought he could not do it with great dedication. He is charismatic, so he can make it.

Gianni Rivera, the 67 year old former Vice-World Champion in 1970 and Golden Ball Winner in 1969, has been named “Head of the FIGC School Sector”, an area that has been highly underrated in the past as the Football association thought there was no need to promote the most popular Italian sport in schools.

His task will be very tough, the Italian Government recently decided to cut costs in public school and there are no sports facilities, so it will be difficult that in the next future funds will be allocated for their building.

Currently the only way for kids to start playing soccer is to attend a “Scuola calcio” (Club Academy) with expenses that families, in a period of economic crisis, could cut. Maybe it will be useful to go again to schools and promote soccer, the competition with other sports is really hard.

Last but not least, Arrigo Sacchi has been appointed as the new youth teams coordinator. The former AC Milan coach released an important statement right after being named:

“We need to leave immediately the typical Italian obsession for victory at all costs. Elsewhere soccer is seen in a different way and that’s why they are now better than us. Italy is a country for old men.”

It is not just a question of atmosphere, as Sacchi said, we hope there will be also facts and not only words.

Italian Youth’s Transition to the Senior Team

Let’s explain what happens: Italy in the past won a lot of Euro U21 titles also because other big National teams had already their best youngsters in the first team squad.

In Italy the practice is that a player, even a star like Mario Balotelli, has to play at least two years in the U21 team before joining the “adults”. The only exceptions are for those players that reach success after they are no more eligible for youth teams.

Well, after Sacchi’s words we would like that the future of calcio and the launch of youth players will be more important than the results in the Euro U21. New Italy’s coach, Cesare Prandelli, has just capped Mario Balotelli for the first time on the occasion of the friendly match against Ivory Coast while – for example – German Toni Kroos, same age as Balotelli, has already 8 caps.

Remaining in Germany, Lukas Podolski at the age of 25 – when an Italian player normally makes his first appearance with the Azzurri – has already 79 caps with the Nationalelf!

So, first of all it takes more bravery to launch youngsters, both in clubs and in national team. «He’s not ready yet, his moment will arrive» are words we don’t want to listen anymore, especially referred to players like Balotelli who is 20 and played 86 times in a team like Inter Milan, winning three Scudetto and a Champions League.

The measure against extra-EU players is ineffective as many players from South America and Africa have an EU passport, sometimes an Italian one, and discrimination within EU workers is forbidden by law.

Another problem is that Italian talent scouts prefer to travel Overseas and find a young player with an EU passport, who normally makes his debut in a first team at the age of 16 and costs the half of an Italian guy of same age.

On the other hand, for small teams is more difficult now to survive only with the academy, as the young player when he is 16 can sign for whatever club he wants his first professional contract, and his last club has just the so called “Training & Development Compensation” which does not motivate small teams like in the past when the young players were bound to them.

Lega Nord And Their Policies

Last issue before talking about club football is related to the Italian domestic policy and demography. Italy is the only country where a xenophobic party (the Lega Nord party) is in power. Benchmark is again Germany, where the National Team placed third at the last WC was made by players with an exotic name like Özil, Khedira, Boateng, Podolski, and others.

Some of them have a German parent, but the majority of them are second generation immigrants. Would it be possible to do the same in Italy? Consider that the birth-rate in the country has inverted the negative trend thanks to the immigration, in certain schools there are classes where the majority is made by foreigners.

However, Italian law for citizenship takes into account the “ius sanguinis”, meaning all these second generation immigrants have no Italian passport until they are 18 and the procedure is long and complicated. We are talking about the ones who are born in Italy, for the others it’s even more difficult.

Last year the Italian U15 cricket national team won the European Second Division Championship with just an Italian boy: all the rest were sons of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan immigrants (all countries where cricket is the most popular sport). They could play for Italy according to the cricket federation rules, but just two of them have an Italian passport, so if it was soccer they wouldn’t been entitled to play for Italy.

Curiously, as they won the title they immediately dedicated the trophy to Umberto Bossi, the Lega Nord secretary.

The Barwuah Saga

Also, Mario Balotelli is always victim of racism in Italian stadia, where people sings to him things like “There’s no black Italian”. He became officially Italian at the age of 18 but, under a soccer perspective, he is 100% Italian, more than Mauro Camoranesi (who has an Italian grandfather) or even Amauri, just capped at the age of 30, after becoming Italian for marriage with a Brazilian naturalized Italian woman.

We think that, if Balotelli was not adopted by an Italian family and grew up with his Ghanaian natural parents he could have chosen Ghana National Team, with a great damage for calcio. In fact, he was called by the Ghanaian Federation but he always refused as he feels Italian.

We hope the public opinion will be more open minded in the future and will accept a soccer team like the German one, if it should happen.

From Soccerlens.com - Football News