This video does not take into account Italy's large recession in the early and late 90s, it really led to a lack of investment in stadiums, fans and clubs, meaning people were being unable to afford games. People never came back even when the economy improves, although the Italian elite still get fans in, small and medium Italian clubs never managed to recover their attendances. Mainly because they are in tourist dependant cities with the exception of Napoli (who are seeing attendance increases due to an improvement in performance). There is a reason the largest clubs are in Milan and Turin, the richest Italian cities.

Just an anecdote: In 1983 I was apprenticing with my aunt in Milan. My cousin's boyfriend's best friend was a Serie A referee. The boyfriend asked me if I wanted to go to the San Siro, since his best friend would be refereeing AC Milan vs Sampdoria that weekend, so I said, "sure!" I figured since he was a referee, I might even get a good seat. They dropped me off at the VIP entrance, and I was met by the referee, who told me to walk next to him and ignore everybody. Anyone who asked was told I was his nephew ("nipote" in Italian). We kept passing through checkpoints, and the next thing you know, I was on the pitch at the San Siro! If you've seen the San Siro on T.V., you'll notice there's hardly any room between the pitch and the first row of seats - just enough for the players, essential staff, security, and a few photographers behind the goals. I didn't know where I should settle for the match, so I finally just sat at the end of the Sampdoria bench (still a bench in those days) which was the only place where there was a bit of room. After the game, I wandered around aimlessly through the changing rooms where I met Trevor Francis and Liam Brady. I don't know who was more surprised - me on hearing English spoken in the dressing room or them wondering what this American kid was doing there. My aunt's maid - who was a diehard communist - saw me on Television and so the next day when she came to work at the flat, she furiously cussed me up and down in Italian that a foreigner could enjoy such a privilege, however brief. Crazy times...

I went to watch AC Milan vs Atalanta in February. Return flights + tickets for the game cost me £70 with our tickets costing £12.50 (€14) each. The Atmosphere at the San Siro was incredible 👌🏾. A lot cheaper than an away trip in England the ticket alone would be touching £70 never mind travel costs. As much as Italian stadiums need work the passion for the game/atmosphere will always outweigh new stadiums

Finally! The disparity in infrastructure between Italy and the rest of the big footballing nationa in Europe is an interesting question, and I’m glad you’re here to answer it!

The money difference between the top and bottom for Spain and Italy is diabolical. Even the San Siro looks like a tip due to the lack of funding or rebuilding of stadiums.

You clearly described the issues related to the Italian football world. It is worth mentioning that Italy's economies has been declining for more than 20 years and the population is aging and shrinking. That makes Italians more prone to oppose private investments in infrastructure and politicians draw their consent from NIMBY constituencies.

0:02 The case of the Artemio Franchi is interesting. Fiorentina has wanted to renovate it for decades, but the city and state blocked and held it off due to its protected status (it is classed as a sort of monument since it was designed in a D shape for duce i.e. Mussolini). Now an agreement has finally been reached and the stadium will be modernized by 2026.

It's a shame most italian football clubs don't own their own stadiums... i do love the artermio franchi though 😍

I remember in the 90s watching Football Italia on Channel 4. Italian football was so exciting and the atmosphere looked amazing. It's sad what has happened to Italian football.

Italian stadiums have a South American feel about them , they have that weird oval shape to them meaning the two ends are miles from the pitch. I love looking at stadiums , they all have their charm. I must admit new stadiums look very much the same , nice to look at but I love the old lower league teams stadium as they have character

Thank you, Alfie. Calcio is near and dear to me. Your report was so thoughtfully presented that I hit subscribe immediately afterward. The FIGC and municipalities (who overwhelmingly own the stadiums and permissions to build anew) resist change through bureaucracy or stubbornness. Only a huge financial change for better or worse will motivate these dinosaurs to adapt. The subject is sad and maddening. You did a great job covering it.

This is an excellent overview, but it did overlook the Dacia Arena in Udine and the Gweiss Arena in Bergamo, both of which were essentially gutted and rebuilt in place in the last decade and are now far more modern and hospitable than the vast majority of their counterparts.

I went to Frosinone vs Cagliari in December, and Frosinone have a new stadium opened about 5 years ago I think. They’re top of Serie B at present; I don’t know how much the new stadium gives them an advantage, but they are one of my new teams following the trip around Europe, of which I probably have about 10. Also just found out they were initially going to build their new stadium in the 80s, but the project was essentially aborted for 30 years until a favourable council authorised its completion in 2016. This story gives Valencia hope that the Nou Mestalla may be completed in 30 years time too!

Alfie when are you gonna make one of those but for the Brazilian league? Not specifically about stadiums but about why the league is trying to reform itself a la Premier League (for the second time, and this time with two different groups fighting for two different reforms) and what this crazy club president called Mario Celso Petraglia is doing with "his" club. It's interesting stuff mate.

I think the attendance is not just the stadiums being subpar but because the italian fa is going after ultras and fans by making them sign up with fan cards to attend games. Which allot of people don’t want to do

You should do a video on that time Scotland claimed to be world champions, when they were the first team to beat England after the '66 World Cup Final and it give birth to the unofficial football World championship, a lineal championship that was backdated to the first internationals back in the 1870's

The fact that the designer of the Delle Alpi hadn’t even watched football before is the most brilliant Italian thing ever.

Amazing video and extremely good research once more! You need to make an AEK athens video next! Phoenix club that came back up won the league qualified for both europa and champions league with a stadium built just months ago and sitting top of the league in Greece this season! Couldn't write a better script!

Interesting video, but as a Real Sociedad supporter there's something to be said. Our stadium is owned by the city council but the club paid the renovation works in practically all of its entirety. Now the club is the "owner" and can use it to host rugby matches, concert venues and change the naming rights to earn a little bit of money with it (Reale insurances pay for it). It was part of the agreement and can be done. Getting rid of the athletic tracks was an investment as they were useless and the atmosphere was colder than ice.

I was at the San Siro a few weeks ago for the Milan/Salernitaina game and as great as it was seeing the iconic stadium, the hole in the ground squat toilets were a real eye opener!

Some MLS teams have this same issue. My team, the Chicago Fire, are a prime example. The Fire moved back to Soldier Field from SeatGeek stadium (Toyota Park) back in 2020, with hopes of positive impact to attendance and making the Fire more well known through out the city. It unfortunately has made a negative impact and many fans who used to make the difficult trek to the southwest suburbs in the past, wont even show up to Soldier Field despite public transportation being more accessible. A lot has to do with the fact that the Chicago Park District owns Soldier Field and they call the shots on parking and ticket sales. Parking used to be $20 at SeatGeek, but now its $40 at Soldier Field. Not to mention they also ground share with the Chicago Bears (NFL) and they take priority when it comes to match times, so games are played at odd times after August. As a result so far this season, we have the lowest attendance record, with an average of about 12k. Atlanta United's attendance is more than 4 times that on average and they aren't even leading in attendance this season. To be fair, weather has played a huge part in that and attendance is expected to increase now that its getting warmer in the midwest, but we averaged higher than that at SeatGeek (averaged around 16-18k). One saving grace for the Fire is that the Bears have purchased a huge plot of land and are planning to create a stadium of their own in the North Suburbs, which will leave the Fire as the only tenants at Soldier Field. The current mayor tried her best to keep the Bears at SF by announcing a major renovation project, but that failed. However, one of the plans (plan C) included a major renovation for the Fire, as the Fire have also been looking to jump ship as well. With these plans comes a smaller capacity (from 60k seats to around 35k) and a modern Stadium district with even better public transportation options. So theres still hope for Fire attendance in the long run.

Great video again Alfie. Would love to hear your opinion on the greatest all time xi for each continent. I'm guessing Europe and South America would get more views but I think it would be more interesting to hear your opinions on the other continents.

Spain also renew a lot of stadiums in the last decade(Bernabeu, Metropolitano, Ceramica, Anoeta, New San Mames, Benito Villamarin...., And Valencia New stadium maybe one day!)

I hope things get sorted out over in Italy! Serie a is such a great league imo, so much history, big clubs...there's nothing quite like the atmospheres they make for a big match. I'm glad to see its growing again in recent times, would love to see the league back where it used to be, or at least continue keeping pace with the big 4

Excellent analysis! As a long time fan of Italian football and especially AS Roma, I can only support what you are concluding. Even when "my" club is one of the few that always has a full stadium with a grand atmosphere. Last October I attended Roma against bottom third of league side Lecce with 62.000 at the Olimpico. But even Roma is now planning to leave the iconic Olimpico and, after the mentioned disaster at Tor di Valle venue, planning a new stadium at Tiburtina in the heart of the city, next to one of the major train stations, and this time it seems the city administration will follow through. We'll see what happens ;-)

Great Video my brother, keep it up 💪🏽

Thank you Alfie for spelling out something of which I've been sort of vaguely aware about Italian football stadiums for some time. As a Canaries' fan it was good to find Carrow Road being used as a unit of measurement, like the proverbial areas of land the sizes of Belgium and Wales.

We were at an Italian restaurant yesterday in the UK and the upper floor had been turned into a Napoli room with Maradona murals. Napoli are still a great side and there were some contemporary players on the wall. However, the mural of Maradona had dates and fixtures of some of his best performances (1987, 1988, etc.) and it just hit home how long ago that golden era of Italian football was...

Great video, as usual. What about a video about the great midfielders of the last 20 years ? Just a way, for me, to hear about Clarence Seedorf. Everybody has forgotten this complete midfielder who is, imo, up there with Iniesta, Modric etc.

There's two main factors at play in Italy. Firstly, Italys constantly unstable economy. It fluctuates between being in a recession and not on an almost constant basis. Secondly, majority of stadiums are owned by the local council, not the club. When you combine these two factors together, you can see why nothing major in terms of stadium development has happened in the last 30 years. Milan and Inter have been trying to get planning permission for a new joint and separate ventures for years now and that still shows little signs of changing.

We Roma fans went through a lot indeed. Internal delays, mayor scandal, new mayor forcing a new version, more delays because of the builder. Then, new owners deemed the project outdated and now we're trying for a 3rd time (1st time was in the 1980s but it quickly fell apart because politics). Otherwise, there is actually SOMETHING happening. Udinese and Frosinone have revamped their stadiums, Atalanta (last stand soon), Spezia, Ascoli and Padova ongoing. Other smaller teams like Südtirol, Albinoleffe and L'Aquila have new stadiums. Project wise, Parma is probably revamping their stadium very soon. Cagliari might be on the same path after some struggles. Bologna is trying to get started in 2 years (time needed to build a temporary stadium). Same for Fiorentina. Empoli is trying to acquire their stadium to rebuild it. There are also other projects, more or less serious. So it's not so bleak, although the political and economic landscape in Italy really seems quite unoptimistic to say the least. Who knows what the future holds.

Great video as always. Any chance to have a video about Maltese Football please? Thank you 😊

Even though they look bad, each stadium is kinda unique… most of modern stadiums look copy and pasted at times.

1:05 Where are these figures from? There is no way Serie A was averaging anything close to 57,000 fans even back then.

The San Siro is aesthetically beautiful but is quite literally falling to bits. I know someone who worked for Inter a couple of years ago, he said the stadium has pretty much outlived its useful life and would cost a ridiculous amount just to bring upto new building standards of today.

If you add a running track to a stadium, it takes as much as 50% more concrete (and land) to build it. It would be better to have many football only (or football and rugby) stadiums and a few track-only stadiums for IAAF events. If they insist on including a track in a stadium, retractable or removable seating is a better option than a larger building. Have the seats near the field along the sidelines ON the track during games, and retract UNDER the other seats during track events.

You omitted Udinese which has managed to rebuild 3/4's of its stadium quite recently making it the 2nd successful case after Juventus. Most of the rest yes, old charm but not proper by 2023 standards. Regarding Italian teams in Europe this season, there's also Juventus and Roma in the Europa League and Fiorentina in the Conference League, making it a whooping 6 teams still in competition.

San Siro is part of my childhood, so many memories in that place. It should never be demolished.

Excellent video as always great work dude

Roma, my team, has been trying to move away from the Olimpico in the past 10 years but the red tape brought by the city hall is ridiculous. Many property owners want to have their slice of the cake. Nevertheless, since we had the new American ownership they slashed the prices and offered great packages so that in the past couple of years we have managed to bring more than 60k fans into the stadium for almost every game which was unthinkable 10 years ago when we barely made it over 40k for top games. Milan and Inter have also been filling San Siro in almost every game this year. Udinese, Frosinone and Sassuolo have their own private stadium and most other clubs are desperate to move out from the publicly owned ones. So somehow things are moving to the right direction. Bureaucracy, corruption and lack of high revenues does make it more difficult as well explained in the video. Also, and that's quite important, Juve and other big clubs have too much share of TV rights. In England they are more proportionally balanced giving the likes of Bournemouth enough cash to invest in players, academies and stadiums. In Italy small clubs like Empoli or Udinese survive with great scouting, youth academies and sensitive investments while selling their top players to big clubs.

As someone that also supports an Italian team after an FM save I always liked they've managed to improve their stadium with two renovations in 2019 and 2021 to a pure football ground. Only about 5k spectators currently but hopefully that grows

Thank you for talking about the running tracks, I hate them so much

I've always thought this, glad you made a video about it

As an Atalanta fan, so proud that we own our own stadium and are currently rebuilding the stands. Went to see a nerrazurri derby last year, the atmosphere was unbelievable

The problem in Italy is everyone has to get their piece. How much money are you willing to pay to get your projects moved through the red tape? It's never enough. It's not just stadiums, it took my cousin over 5 years to get the permits to build his house. Imagine living with your in laws for 5 years while your house is being built and halted at every step so that the right people can get paid off...Italy is so messed up when it comes to these kinds of things. Politicians are corrupt af...

I like how you described Arsenal's Emirates as "new" despite it being older than what Juve's Stadio Delle Alpi was when it was shut down.

Great vid. Love the digs too.

In the halcyon days of Football Italia on Channel 4 the thing that was never mentioned during the games was why the stadiums were half empty. Juventus' average crowds in the late 1990's was 27,000 - in a stadium that held 70,000. The 2 Milan clubs also had average gates around 30,000. What I didn't realise was that none of the teams back then owned the stadiums but had to lease them from the City Councils who had no incentive to put any more than the bare minimum of maintenance into them. So even though most of the best players in the world were in Serie A the clubs were all losing vast amounts of money and totally dependent on sugar daddy owners to foot the bill - quite often in legally dubious ways.

The despised Stadio delle Alpi - which, oddly enough, was one of the most beautiful grounds in Fifa 10 and 11...honestly, it took my breath away every time I played a game there. Funny how some things work!

I think people always forget that Calciopoli didn't happen to Serie A, it was done by Serie A. The systemic corruption was only possible because the league was complicit. Italian football suffered because of their own corruption and therefore got overtaken not just by the PL, but by the other top 5 leagues in Europe. It's their own doing.

Was in the Franchi last September for the home game against Verona, sat in the Fiesole with the Ultras. Definitely got an old school charm and presence about it. It feels old, but I absolutely loved it. Huge red tape issues with building the new stadium in Florence, despite having broke ground already 🤷🏼‍♂️ Think the latest word is an collaborative investment from the city Council to rejuvenate and update the Franchi. Will probably miss the antiquated charm though.

I went to a game in Bologna last season. It was like stepping into a time warp but I liked it. Actually it was refreshing to watch a game in a stadium that was not a vanilla corporate behemoth.

Part of the problem in Italy is you can't put a spade in the ground six inches without it either encountering a thousand year old grave or some building or artefact of "historical significance".

You seem to be suggesting that the bad optics of not filled stadium is the cause of decline. Honestly I’m not convinced by that. Seems more that the formation of the Premier League led to the movement of the largest amount of funding from them to the Prem, which led to shift in where players wanted to go and what fans wanted to watch, and that led to less interest in Serie A. So the partially empty Serie A stadiums are an effect of that, though one that reinforces the same negative dynamic in terms of funding / interest / development.

Germany has only 2 very big stadiums with athletic tracks around: Olympic Stadium Berlin (used by Hertha BSC in Bundesliga) and Olympic Stadium in Munich. Since Bayern Munich went to their own Stadium, the city of Munich uses the Olympic Stadium for large concerts and European Championships in Athletics 2022, so it's still in very good conditions (they renovated all seats and lights etc in the last years)

I know it's partly tongue in cheek from Alfie, but the smugness from some English football fans is staggering, when they could find themselves in a similar position to Italy in early 00s if suddenly the oil money dries up, or they get bored of their play things in the premier league and decide to allocate their billions elsewhere. A lot of these things go in cycles, but you'd get the impression that the cycle of English dominance started much earlier and will last much longer, with far more success than the dominant spells for Italy, Spain and Germany. Despite all this it would be very hard to argue England is actually dominating Europe in any way shape or form, I've often heard Prem fans (which most of my friends are as an Irishman) saying relegation battling sides would take Champions League spots in Italy, Germany or Spain, despite the fact that English team have historically not done well in the Europa league against teams from those nations that aren't capable of making the Champions League.

As a Serie A fan, I'm glad to see this covered . Great job

here in florence, fiorentina's stadium cannot be demolished nor "restructured" because it's considered an artistic monument by the state. a good example of the fact that everything in italy is quite different and over-complicated respect to rest of europe

During the 90's Italy got hit back from a big recession and investments have been halted in many fields of the Country. Also, now that Italy has opened up to private investments, Serie A benefited from it, since also a number of stadiums have been completely renovated and rebuilt, like Spal, Frosinone (in 2nd tier league Serie B), Atalanta (amazingly redeveloped keeping an eye on the stadium's history!) and Udinese in Serie A, with stores, skyboxes, restaurants and office spaces.

Quick question. When you say about letting us know your thoughts at the end do you mean with regard to your clip or in general? Personally speaking I think dishwashers aren't that useful and I wash up by hand- my wife thinks I'm crazy! But i'm not sure if this is what you are after or not. Very interesting piece though either way, thanks

Alfie, we do not deserve you, but we love every bit of content you give us.

Very good video, very interesting. What strikes me the most when watching Serie A, is the stadiums with athletic tracks. It is so ugly, and feels wrong. The seats are 20m away from the pitch. Even the best seats are mediocre. Although it felt weird to see Juventus move in a much smaller stadium, and although I don't understand who are the people that pay a lot of money to watch a football game with a luxurious room behind them not why they do that, it seems to have worked out great for them. Nevertheless, I hope that San Siro won't be destroyed. It's so iconic, and it's so beautiful aswell ! It's a real work of art, the outside is incredible ! I'd like to go there at least once.

Still hoping for that Austrian Wunderteam video 😇✌. A few small notes: the club in Bari was actually called AS Bari. The name was changed to SSC Bari only after they re-founded in 2018. Regarding Old Trafford: it's in a terrible state and the owners refuse to put money into it to renovate it. Just one of the many reasons the Glazers are hated in Manchester. Tifo made a video about that some months ago.

One example of another option is what happened to La Real’s (Real Sociedad) Anoeta. It used to be an old outdate stadium with running tracks and terrible views. Now Anoeta is a state of the art facility that stands where the previous one also was. There are solutions to modernize clubs facilities in more than one way.

Great video! 20 years ago it could have been on television as a sport related documentary.

Serie A would massively benefit from Italy getting to host another worldcup or european championship. Milan (as much as I love the San Siro), Roma and Lazio and Napoli need new Stadiums. Atalanta and Udinese recently modernized theirs. Most of the other teams basicaly lack the consistency on the pitch as well as the fan base to necessitate better stadiums. Something I do believe you failed to mention is that in order to watch a game in Serie A you need to go through a rather difficult registration process in order to get the "Tessera del Tifoso" which allows for the online purchase of tickets pre game rather than on the matchday at the stadium. Makes planning difficult, especially for tourists.

San Siro is so old that in the last few years they have partially closed the upper part of the stadium, because there was some risk of crashing down (during matches pillars were vibrating too much). As an inter fan, even if i love the stadium (i even played a couple matches there since it's used also for smaller football events) we need either to renew it or to build another one. Knowing italy, it will take AT LEAST 10 years from when they have all the permissions (which any team won't have anytime soon).

In this video, you said there is a big comparisons between Italy and Germany stadiums that hosted the World Cup, suggesting that Germany (along with England and Spain) was better than Italy when it comes to the quality of the football stadiums. In the past decades, countries such as France and Russia were also built a modern arenas, which proved better than Italy. When France hosted the Euro 2016, 4 of 10 main venues are completely new (Lille, Nice, Bordeaux, Lyon), while others such as Orange Velodrome and Parc des Princes are fully renovated. Russia's 2018 World Cup was such crazy. Only two of the 12 main venues were fully renovated (Luzhniki and Yekaterinburg). The rest were just a completely new stadiums and were assigned for some Russian professional clubs like: 1.Gazprom Arena: Zenit Saint Petersburg. 2.Volgograd Arena: Rotor Volgograd. 3.Rostov Arena: Rostov FC. 4.Samara Arena: Krylia Sovetov Samara. 5.Kaliningrad Arena: Baltika Kaliningrad. 6.Ak Bars Arena: Rubin Kazan. 7.Otkrytie Arena: Spartak Moscow. 8.Nizhny Novgorod Stadium: Pari Nizhny Novgorod. 9.Fisht Stadium: PFC Sochi. 10.Ekaterinburg Arena: Ural Yekaterinburg. 11.Mordovia Arena: Saransk FC.

Why you lying about the average being 57,000 in Serie A? it wasn't. It was 32,000 the year the PL came out.

Italy have put in an official bid to host the 2032 euros. And they’ve put forward 10 cities. Milan,Rome,Naples,Turin,Genoa,Bari, Florence,Bologna Cagliari and Verona so if they are successful you would expect the stadiums in those cities to be renovated or new ones to be built from scratch which would be a huge step in the right direction

I don’t think I’ve seen you do it before. But I’d like to see a ranking of the top 7 atmospheres in football in terms of fans on top of the field.

Hey Alfie, could you do a video on Glentoran and or their 1914 Vienna Cup? Their stadium alone has seen plenty of history, especially off the field as it’s right next to the shipyards and was even bombed during the Belfast Blitz. The Historical Belfast podcast did a fine piece on it but I feel Glentoran deserve the HITC Seven’s treatment. Also, George Best was turned down by Glentoran as a boy because he was “too small.”

So basically most of the Serie A clubs are really fucked up in the future, unable to modernize their stadiums, so they will stuck in a slow fall of decreasing ability to compete

Interesting video. In the early 90's I think the only club ground in England with capacity above 40,000 was Old Trafford, and that was only just over that mark. If you had a 30k plus capacity, that was big. This has obviously changed a lot! The other point about athletics tracks was interesting, and obviously a terrible decision made to attach tracks to seemingly all the new grounds in time for Italia '90. Before the UK had been awarded the 2012 Olympics, and set out a serious plan for that, there was an endless back and forth over whether or not to put an athletics track around the new Wembley stadium. They took years to make this simple decision, and had we not made an Olympic bid (which turned out to be successful) I'm fairly convinced they'd have wrecked Wembley with one.

Fantastic video!

Seria A was the original Premier League before there was a Premier League. All the big players were there & there was the supposed "Top-6" too. These things work in cycles, I believe. That's why, you see there are now 3 Italian clubs in Champions League quarterfinals as opposed to only 2 English ones. Italian football will rise again!

Atalanta, Juventus, Udinese and Frosinone are good examples of modern football projects in Italy

I love groundhopping in Italy. Football like in the old days. Feels like going to an air port when visiting the Etihad. I can say Genoa, Napoli, Bergamo and Udinese where great venues to visit.

I read many comments about the lack of investments in Italy since the late 90s. This is partially true as the Italian economy is shrinking day by day. But the main reason behind the stadium problem is bureaucracy. Trust me. Investments on Serie A aren't dependant on internal market anymore with so many big clubs now in the hands of big Chinese, European or American corporations (see Roma, Inter, Juventus). Italian football still has international appeal due to its history and money might potentially come from abroad. The problem is as soon as these international actors try to put their stadium plans on the table, Italian bureaucracy (whether at city, region or State level) constantly and invariably hijacks them. AS Roma, under its former American ownership, spent 5 years pitching its privately financed stadium project. The club wasn't able to get the building permit though. Just to simplify things, the municipality of Rome gave its ok and the club reached step 2 (regional level approval). While regional offices were processing the project, first the authority for cultural heritage challenged it on the grounds that the old hippodrome on which the stadium would be built had to be preserved, then the city council changed and the new mayor withdrew the city's authorisation, forcing the club to start over from square 1. AS Roma complied, but, as soon as the project reached step 2 again, the land developer who had partnered with the club since the start of the procedure was prosecuted for corruption (he had been trying to "speed things up"). Long story short, after 5 years and millions of euros invested just to get started, the entire project came to an end. When the Friedkin Group bought AS Roma, Dan Friedkin decided to archive the old project and start over again, moving the building site from Tor di Valle to Pietralata. We're currently close to the completion of the first step (council approval), but you can bet that something will happen sooner or later along the way. Inter and Milan have been forced by the Milan city council to change plans at least 3 times in the space of 2 years and haven't even managed to complete step 1 as Roma has done twice (now almost three times). It's UNBELIEVABLE. Please tell me how a foreign investor can even think of building a new stadium in Italy, committing to this crazy, foolish, ever-lasting game of the goose. It's a miracle somebody is actually trying and this fact alone speaks volumes about the potential profitability of Italian football (which is huge IMHO).

Answer: because it's not that easy to build a stadium in Italy. In Italy almost all stadiums are own by public, not by privates. If a private wants to build a stadium, than it has to follow public rules about where, in what times and how to build it. Building a stadium in Italy is not that easy, some times it is a process that demandes decades of waiting: for example, Udinese's first project for the new Friuli/Dacia Arena was made back in 1998, the final project was approved in 2011, in 2013 they started to work on it, in 2015 they finished it. 17 years of waiting from the first project.

Shoutout to my local club Frosinone, one of the few exceptions in the Italian football stadium landscape💛💙

San Siro, Allianz Stadium, Olympic Stadium, Maradona Stadium are I guess the only Serie A stadiums still up to snuff for international standards compared to the EPL, La Liga and Bundesliga (even if only barely at times). The rest? Not so much. And fact: I remember that already in 1998, Serie A stadiums were very empty on matchday. Germany was in a similar situation but the success of the 2006 World Cup has given the Bundesliga a sustainable boost it needed to bring asses to the seats. But for Italy, even the effect of winning the World Cup did not last long in the Serie A, not to mention that ever since, they missed the World Cup twice. Calciopoli didn't help, and I'm sure the current scandal with Serie A teams cooking the books won't either.

I just went to the Fiorentina stadium the other day and it was crazy how run down it was compared to stadiums in the Netherlands where i live

No way this popped up on my feed, right before I go watch the Lazio vs Juventus game 💀

As you said the biggest problem is that you literally cant build new stadium because you will never get permission. Examples in Rome and Milano describe the story. 2nd problem is Juventus build new venue and it looks good and make more money but reality is that its dead like stadiums in PL. FIGC will bid for 2032 Euro and that can help with renovations because I cant see the World where will laws change and where would be possible to build new stadium on your own. Its a shame that in 2nd best league rn is 4th biggest attendece 13k behind Germany 9,5k behind England and 0,5k behind Spain

"The architect had never watched a game of football in his life" the guy should be disqualified as an architect

You finally mentioned Atalanta! Surely they are an example in regard to this subject of what can be done on a more megre budget and the Gewiss Stadium is relaly coming along. But, this was an excellent article.

The way you describe the evolution of Italian football sadly reminds me to Uruguayan football within the exact same timeframe. Decaying infrastructure that's leased (except for the two big teams nobody owns a stadium), economical disparity with the rest of continental leagues, and teams who used to be competitive worldwide suddenly becoming irrelevant.

Thanks for this Alfie. I've always been the hipster Juve supporter that praised Serie A back in the day for its sustainability and great competition. Man things have changed DRASTICALLY. As soon as I saw practically the same exact squad in 2010 WC that Italt fielded in 06, I knew there was problems. Football has evolved (for better and for worse) and FIGC left the leagues clubs an national team in the dust

Some of the more basic looking stadiums with no roof are often in the south where the weather tends to be pretty good for a lot of the season. A stadium in England with no roof would be a disaster by comparison.

As an Aussie, first experience was at Stadio Olimpico. Pretty disappointing, crowded, poor facilities, etc

i personally don't think Italian stadiums are bad, i like that retro 'street' look that's what makes them more enticing, more than some concrete jungles they have in Bundesliga and Premier League or in the US. Football was always a sport of the working class. it moves from the street to the pitch and it's natural and simple, that's why so many people love it. Now you have this new generation which is trying to modernise everything and promote the sport to fit the narrative of entertainment like NBA or NFL.

The Italian ultra scene is beautiful (not when it's violent) so imagine when they're in beautiful and worthy stadiums that's packed with affordable ticket prices like in Germany? 😞🇮🇹

i reccomend you to look for Turkish stadiums especially Galatasaray Nef stadium, Konyaspor stadium and Bursaspor Stadium

In other countries building new stadium take even longer. Yeah, they are not in top 5 europien league, but still. As example I could mention Czechia team Hradec Kralove - They build new stadium after 40 years it was promised. Even worse situation is in Brno (second biggest city in Czechia).

If you think Italy stadiums look bad, take a look at argentinian stadiums, everything there is football but their stadiums looks and are terrible, even compared to others in the Americas

@19:36 actually 40k is more than enough. Juve fanbase is all over Italy but in their own city they support Torino. They can’t create the atmosphere that Milan clubs Napoli and Roma create. They cant even compare to Salernitana. The new stadium attendance is perfect for Juve otherwise they would have more empty seats in normal league games

I remember when they put the roof structure on the San Siro in preparation for the 1990 World Cup. The following winter in the1990-91 season, strips of grass would die caused by the cutdown of sunlight on certain parts of the pitch. I visited the stadium a few years ago and noticed they now use a lighting rig to give the grass the light it needs to stay healthy.

Most Italian transport is better than the UKs. Even smaller cities,vin Italy, have better transport than larger UK cities. And the Italian high speed trains are so much better than the UKs options. Look at HS2 and I'd argue the UKs regs are worse than Italy

stadiums, and to a larger extent infrastructure, is a bright shining light as to why italian clubs are pushing so hard for a superleague. the money in italy has dried up so harshly that they need the superleague to catch up. not only does italy not have the deep pockets of the other leagues, the sport is not like it is in the US where they can just threaten relocation to another city if they cant get proper funding taken care of.