Football Italia
Football Italia was a football show on
Channel 4 in the
United Kingdom in the
1990s. Presented by
James Richardson, it included live coverage of
Serie A football, the top flight in the Italian league. The first live match shown, in 1992, was
Sampdoria v.
Lazio, which ended in a 3-3 draw.On
August 28 2005, the programme returned (complete with original presenter and theme music) on
Bravo, starting with
Juventus v.
Chievo. Juventus edged the match by a single goal.
Football Italia started as a result of two factors:
Sky bringing English first-division football off terrestrial television, and the transfer of England's best player,
Paul "Gazza" Gascoigne, to Lazio. At this point 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 the late
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 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 2006-7 season. [
1]
Football Italia has been shown on the following channels throughout its history:
Channel 4: 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02.
British Eurosport: Midway through 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05.
Bravo/Setanta Sports: 2005-06, 2006-07.
*
Channel 4's Football Italia Website*
Bravo's Website
