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UEFA Champions League: How will Serie A teams fare?

Juventus are back in the winner's circle. (AFP PHOTO / MARCO BERTORELLO)
Roar Rookie
27th August, 2016
7

On Tuesday night Roma were knocked out of the Champions League qualifying stages following a humiliating 0-3 home defeat to Porto.

The Italians lost their cool after conceding an early goal with both De Rossi and Emerson seeing red on either side of the half time mark.

What has happened to the Serie A, a league which once dominated the top flight European competition? Where have the mighty sides that featured names like Van Basten, Maldini, Pirlo, Kaka, Eto’o, Zannetti and Cambiasso gone?

Recent history has shown that Napoli and Roma have failed to keep up with other European sides despite benefitting from increased revenue after qualifying for the Champions League these past few years.

Napoli also crashed out in the qualifying stages back in August 2014 against an average Atletico Bilbao squad, while last season they were beaten by a smarter Villarreal in the last 32.

Roma also failed to make it past the group stages in 2014 after being drawn in the same group with the European giants Bayern Munich and relatively virgin Manchester City. A year later they were comfortably beaten 4-0 on aggregate by Real Madrid in the Last 16.

Past giants
Undoubtedly the demise of Milan and Inter has seriously damaged the chances of Italy providing a handful of top sides capable of competing at the highest level.

Their fall from fortune is mainly due to a lack of long-term planning both at management level and also from the government body, known as FIGC. The Milan giants were used to decades of huge seasonal cash injections from their respective owners, an unsustainable practice, which has led them to their current predicament. This is now no longer possible under the UEFA Financial Fair Play regulations.

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The FIGC’s fault?
The FIGC can be blamed for their over bureaucratic and Draconian ways and have failed to learn lessons from the Premier League when it comes to selling the Serie A brand globally.

They also haven’t learned the lessons of the Bundesliga when it comes to ensuring clubs are properly structured.

One shocking fact is that only three Serie A sides actually own their own stadiums, meaning they lose out on significant ticket revenue.

Such shortcomings have led to both the Serie A and it’s respective clubs being lacking the financial ability to compete with the other European big sides.

Juventus are the only Italian side who have managed to create an extremely profitable model after building their own stadium in 2011. They have also proved to be very shrewd in the transfer market each season, their latest coup coming through the world record sale of French midfielder Paul Pogba to Manchester United.

Unfortunately all other Italian clubs lack far behind Juve, both in terms of commercial structure and quality on the pitch. This successful commercial model has ensured that Juventus are favourites to securing their sixth consecutive Scudetto, proving how successful it can be once a club has brought its act in order.

Prediction
Even though there are whispers of Italy potentially being guaranteed four Champions League spots every season due to their historical success, unless the Serie A gets its act together, it will remain well off the pace for the foreseeable future.

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