Serie A to lose a CL Place next season?

[Winston Ingram]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient?wasRedirected=true

Last night Serie A lost there last Europa League representative and with all 3 remaining sides losing finishing 2nd in their groups then losing their home legs and looking on their way out it looks like Serie A will be out of European Competition altogether and as a result lose a CL place.

They only held on to it last year because of Inters run but now Germany have officially over taken them in the co-efficient meaning they are on course to get the place instead. If all 3 remaining CL clubs fall as expected, the Germans are going to pinch a place off them:agree:

It's a bit of a shame really as this was easily Europes top league when I was growing up but now it appears to be in dire straights

[Killiehibbie]

Full of crooks and cheats. Never been really impressed with any Italian team since that Milan team.

[Bishop Hibee]

From '85 until the mid 90's Italian football ruled supreme. Mirroring the shambolic political situation in Italy, the football has gone downhill and is behind Spain, England and Germany.

I'd still love to see one of the Italian giants at ER though (cue 5-0 v Naples memories) :aok: One can dream.

[MWHIBBIES]

Italian football is poor but teams like Napoli and Palermo have been great to watch this season so hopefully they don't suffer because of Samdoria Roma Milan and Inter failing this season

[Fergus52]

seria A has already lost it to germany for this season

[hfc rd]

Italain football in recent season has been really boring. Even the Englsih Championship is much more entertaining to watch. I think the German Bundesliga is starting to get better and better and the football is really entertaining to watch. It won't suprise me if it is soon on the same par as the English Premier League and La Liga.

[renato]

There's a multitude of reasons why Serie A is struggling these days but the single biggest factor IMO is the lack of stadia ownership. All top flight clubs rent stadiums from their respective councils and this is killing match day revenue.

Most were built or capacity increased for Italia 90 and the majority suffer from a real lack of atmosphere (running tracks, stands too far away from the pitches), poor facilities, poor viewing experience and generally being dated and not fit for purpose in this day and age.

The bigger clubs have cottoned on to the need to own their own, modern, purpose built stadium but the city councils will never grant them planning permission - they would stand to lose huge rental income from the clubs. It's a real catch 22 and only Juventus have managed to break the mould and agree a move to their own stadium.....mainly down to the huge influence the Agnelli's (Fiat) have in Turin, plus 7m fans in Italy alone helps to put the pressure on!

The TV deal the likes of Milan, Inter, Juve and Roma have are astronomical - matching or ahead of the Premier League big boys, Spain's big two and Bayern, but they simply cannot compete on spending power due to the lack of match day revenue. IIRC the deal has also changed recently to create a fairer split of TV cash between the whole league, which is great news domestically but widens the gap for the big 3 when competing financially with Europe's elite.

And, whilst the league is currently at its most competitive since the days of Parma, Samp, Lazio, Fiorentina etc challenging for the Scudetto, the attitude and performance in European competitions is simply diabolical. The Europa league is regarded as a joke competition and the big teams with good squads continue to play youth and fringe players against the smaller European clubs, hence the embarrassing and surprising results of the past 10 years.

In Italy, the Scudetto is the only thing that matters and Europe is always a secondary (or even lower) priority. The only exception is Milan who have an incredible haul of continental trophies and always aim for European glory, often at the expense of the Scudetto.

Anyway, poor state of affairs and a lot of it is self inflicted. Politics and scandals haven't helped either.