Football Italia

Infobox Television
show_name = Football Italia


caption =
format = Football
camera =
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audio_format =
runtime =
creator =
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starring =James Richardson (1992-07)
Mark Chapman (2007-2008)
Laura Esposto (2007-2008)
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country = UK
language = English
network = Channel 4
first_aired = 6 September 1992 [ [http://football.guardian.co.uk/continentalfootball/story/0,,1975843,00.html Guardian.co.uk] ]
last_aired = 2008
num_episodes =
website =
imdb_id = 0837969
tv_com_id =

"Football Italia" is an Italian football programme in the United Kingdom, which as of August 2007 is currently known as "Football Italiano". The first broadcasting of the show was in 1992 on Channel 4, the show is centered around live coverage of Serie A football, the top flight 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, it ended in a 3–3 draw and drew 3 million viewers. In August 2005 the programme moved to Bravo, where it only showed one season and a half with the rest featuring on Setanta Sports.

Five owned the rights for the 2007/2008 season. It meant that Italian football had returned to terrestrial in the United Kingdom for the first time in five years. This was also currently the only one of the top four European Leagues to be shown live on terrestrial TV in a major European market. [cite web
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title = TV details: Armchair fans, have no fear
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publisher = Football Italia
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url = http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/c4update.html
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accessdate = 2007-08-31] 26 August 2007 was the exact return date of the show, and the show was broadcasted weekly from 1:30pm Sunday afternoon GMT. [ [http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/162232/serie-a-returns-to-uk-terrestrial-tv-live-on-five SportBusiness.com] ] 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 thank you for your support over the last year." [http://www.footballitaliano.tv/]

History

"Football Italia" started as a result of three factors: Sky bringing English first-division football off terrestrial television, the transfer of England's best player, Paul "Gazza" Gascoigne, to Lazio and the success of C4's Welsh brother's, S4C, European football programme, Sgorio, an idea C4 had passed on a few years earlier. There was a significant difference in quality between Italian and English football that had appeared after England's ban from European competition for unruly behaviour of its fans. Italian clubs paid much higher transfer fees than their English counterparts, and many of the world's best players played in Serie A.

In its original incarnation, "Football Italia" consisted of two programmes: "Gazetta", a Saturday-morning programme (voiced by Kenneth Wolstenholme), and a live match on Sunday afternoon. "Gazetta" contained all the highlights of the previous week's matches and an installment on Italian culture. The former would also consist of interviews with players, especially Gazza, often as they walked around a chosen city. These were often very funny, such as when Richardson performed the Lambada with Attilio Lombardo. One of the most famous aspects of the programme was Richardson's going through the Italian newspapers in the sunshine, outside a café, explaining all the transfer rumours to the British audience. During the last series, which was broadcast in the early hours of the morning, Richardson sat at a café outside 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.

British Eurosport bought the Serie A rights from the middle of the 2002–2003 season after Channel 4 dropped it. C4 were the first broadcaster to bring Italian football to British TV way back in the early 1990s. They held onto the rights for a decade.

Bravo and Setanta Sports signed a joint deal, taking them through to the end of the 2006–07 season. [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds23182.html] Poor viewing figures on Bravo saw them announce they would not be showing any matches after December 23, 2006. Some speculate that this was because of the absence of the league's most decorated team, Juventus, which were relegated in the aftermath of the 2006 Serie A scandal.

Return in 2007 and End in 2008

Five gained the rights to broadcast Serie A from the 2007–08 season, giving them the rights to air highlights and live games. [http://football.guardian.co.uk/continentalfootball/story/0,,2101055,00.html] It meant a return for the show to terrestrial television, where the live games are aired at the old 1:30p.m Sunday afternoon spot like it was originally.

Under the new name of Football Italiano the show is presented by Mark Chapman and Laura Esposto. The first game shown was a 1–1 draw between Inter and Udinese on Sunday, August 26, 2007 with John Barnes and Tony Jones as the current commentators.

The opening theme song in this version of the show is Phantom pt. II by Justice.

On June 27th 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 [http://www.footballitaliano.tv/] . As a result the Football Italiano website was suspended. So far there has been no news on why Five decided not to continue with the coverage.

"Golaccio!"

The show became well known in popular culture for a word it features at the start and at the end of each show. Commonly fans in the United Kingdom misinterpreted the word as "Goal Lazio"; the term is actually "golaccio!" which translated roughly as goaltastic!. [ [http://football.guardian.co.uk/theknowledge/story/0,13854,1579429,00.html Football.co.uk] ]

Although the word itself is not Italian, it does come from footballer José Altafini, a Brazilian who played in Serie A for AC Milan, Napoli and Juventus. Since retiring from the game, Altafini became a commentator in Italy and would use the word to describe a particularly beautiful goal. It is said to be his actual voice in the soundclip. [ [http://football.guardian.co.uk/theknowledge/story/0,13854,1579429,00.html Football.co.uk] ]

The Theme Tune

The Theme tune to the show originates from a track called "I'm Stronger Now" which was performed by Definitive Two and released on the Deconstruction label in 1992. Four tracks were released together but it is the 7" Edit vesion that the theme tune is based upon. The track was written by Ben Chapman and Steve Duberry who also adapted the track for the theme tune the most notable change being the addition of the famous "golaccio" chant which is probably what the show is best remembered for.

Click on the link below to hear it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upFmi6KruUc

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.

References

External links

* [http://www.footballitaliano.tv The official Football Italiano site from five.tv]
* [http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/ Sport - Football Italia] at Channel4.com
* [http://www.bravo.co.uk/footballitalia/index.php Bravo's Website]
* [http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2006/12/20/arrivederci_james_and_thanks_f.html Guardian Unlimited feature on end of Gazetta Football Italia]