Non-italians don't watch Serie A

I can’t believe I watch more Serie A than most forumists here, and I live in South Africa while they live next to Italy.

Sometime I feel bad for Bluenine coz he’s the only one who gives an opinion on Serie A while every body else has less clue or none whatsoever. For instance, people say Kaka and Ronaldo were the best players last season, but Ibra, Totti and Seedorf outplayed Kaka over 40 league games. Then now they say Messi is the best this season, hello has anyone seen Ibra’s individual goals this season, infact he outplayed Messi in the last two games and I watched them both.

What is the world coming to if an African watch more European football than Europeans!

rza wrote:

What is the world coming to if an African watch more European football than Europeans!

Europe <> Italy.

I watch Dutch, German, English and some Spanish football.

I do not watch a league where titles/refs are bought

i think the italian league has to do a hell of a lot to regain confidence of overseas watchers, i just don't enjoy watching always wondering, at least in spain its blatant the big two get loads of decisions, finishing above either of these or 3rd behind both is a major achievement given all the cheating in their favour, it always cracks me up how they both moan about decisions the other gets when they are both as bad as each other. BUT Italy is way way worse

Axeslammer wrote:

rza wrote:

What is the world coming to if an African watch more European football than Europeans!

I do not watch a league where titles/refs are bought

I seriously think people have underestimated the effect this has had. Most people thought the punishments were not hard enough, and they kept reducing them all the time. Then the league last year really was so poor, that it needs a few good seasons to get the viewers back. This looks like being one though. I havent watched one seria a game in ages, but will start watching a few again soon.

L r d wrote:
I havent watched one seria a game in ages, but will start watching a few again soon.

Problem is that players like Messi and Kaka are being touted as the best in the world even though they maybe not be because people don't watch Serie A anymore. I know the scandal last year had a huge effect on Serie A, but it doesn't mean we should ignore good performances by Ibra, Totti and Seedorf.

The Italian league is the only league I really watch.

I find the Dutch league atrocious, and I don't particularly like English football. From time to time I will tune to a La Liga game.

Italian football has always been pretty hard to watch in the UK. It just is never really on TV. Channel four used to do an excellent highlights programme and this is probably when it was at it's most popular over here

Over the past few years we have had to make do with a mixture of no coverage at all, bravo and channel five.

Then of course you have the stereotype which seems to be ingrained in people's minds that Italian football will bore the $h!t out of you for 90 minutes. It is unfair, however normally we sit down to watch an Italian match and expect to turn it over after 20 minutes (obviously I don't speak for everyone but I am guessing a lot of people also think like this)

I am not quite sure how this is going to change. Perhaps if sky take over the coverage and make it a lot more interesting for the masses. It is actually a major shock they have not secured the rights already because they show enough $h!t football (they recently started showing live northern ireland league matches )

rza wrote:I can’t believe I watch more Serie A than most forumists here, and I live in South Africa while they live next to Italy.

Sometime I feel bad for Bluenine coz he’s the only one who gives an opinion on Serie A while every body else has less clue or none whatsoever. For instance, people say Kaka and Ronaldo were the best players last season, but Ibra, Totti and Seedorf outplayed Kaka over 40 league games. Then now they say Messi is the best this season, hello has anyone seen Ibra’s individual goals this season, infact he outplayed Messi in the last two games and I watched them both.

What is the world coming to if an African watch more European football than Europeans!

Most people watch their own league.

I'm Milan fan and watch most of their games. But it I had to choise between Milan - Inter and Steaua - any team I'm gonna watch the Steaua game.

I watch the Serie A coverage on Channel 5. The football is of a far higher quality than the punditry! Time to move on from Calciopoli. The sentences were lax, but that is hardly the fault of Totti et al, whose performances deserve credit.

Yeah, a lot of people here do not watch Serie A.... I think calciopoli is an excuse, most people here didn't watch Serie A before either... Axe's factually incorrect statement quoted below is a good example - refrees/titles were not "bought" in calciopoli.

All that does create a huge bias against Serie A teams and players. Hence you get comments like:

- Serie A is too defensive and boring - when its the most high scoring and exciting of teh big leauges

- Villareal are better than Juventus and Fiorentina

- Rossi "pisses" over Pazzini/Palladino

- All those comments totally under rating Totti, Mutu, Ibra, etc

Most people here making those comments are basing their opinion on one odd game they saw... its a bit silly... there are some posters knowledgeable about the italian game, but their numbers are dwindling now.

I live in London, so cannot avoid an english game or two every week... but I always watch more of Serie A coz I found it always more exciting and skillful as a game... and prefer watching La Liga over EPL too, specially the games involving the bigger sides.

Axeslammer wrote:

I do not watch a league where titles/refs are bought

bluenine wrote: Axe's factually incorrect statement quoted below is a good example - refrees/titles were not "bought" in calciopoli.

A former Napoli president has gone on record to say that during the eigthies he had the ref committee in his pocket so he could chose which game would get which refs.

The fact alone that Northern refs would be biased against Southern teams and vice versa is enough for me to call a competition corrupt, that a chairman actually can actively direct this is beyond comprehension for me.

He also stated that this custom was still going on nowadays...

Getting to pick a refree was the biggest fraud in calciopoli. Not buying or throwing away games.

And there is good reason to believe that "that custom" has changed since last season and the crackdown... while the punishments were a bit lax, te steps taken to ensure this does not happen again seem sincere. Putting Collina in charge was another good move.

Most Italian coaches and presidents complain about the refreeing decisions, thats more of a cultural issue. There is no Moggi-isque figure in Italian football anymore, and football is the winner for it.

The best bit is that the big games usually do not fail to deliver anymore... the Roma-Fiorentina game yesterday was really exciting and had 4 goals... all big games are living up to their name of late, and that makes the league very exciting to watch. Also look at the top... there are 7 teams within 2 points of each other, and that does not include Milan or Lazio!! This is gonna be a close, many headed race!!

Axeslammer wrote:

bluenine wrote: Axe's factually incorrect statement quoted below is a good example - refrees/titles were not "bought" in calciopoli.

A former Napoli president has gone on record to day that during the eigthies he had the ref committee in his pocket so he could chose which game would get which refs.

The fact alone that Northern refs would be biased against Southern teams and vice versa is enough for me to call a competition corrupt, that a chairman actually can actively direct this is beyond comprehension for me.

He also stated that this custom was still going on nowadays...

rza wrote: Then now they say Messi is the best this season, hello has anyone seen Ibra’s individual goals this season, infact he outplayed Messi in the last two games and I watched them both.

Quite possibly. We've gone over this in antother thread though. Messi = nice. Ibrah = nasty.

People are naturally going to hype the nice guy

Every league has a few players that start the league outsnatdingly though. I mean Adebayor has got 6 goals in four league games!

I watch a bit as COTR has said coverage has been very inconsistent over here. I know me and my dad was used to watch when it was on channel four, but we've both sort of lost track with coverage (going from Bravo to nothing at all, to Sentanta & Channel 5)

I also feel for blue a bit. He's a great poster, but sadly the Serie A contingent seems to be dropping away from the board. Kaka posts a bit, but what happened to Pirlo, Pippo & Red & Black, Tarun, Waft & and that other Inter fan?

Coverage is decent in the UK. You have the highlights of all the last weeks games for 45 minutes on Saturday morning, then you have one live game and then highlights of the others after that. I'd say its better coverage than the Terrestial EPL coverage!

I've seen one game a week so far this season from Serie A and some of the games have been far better than the La liga or Premiership games I've seen.

The reason many people choose not to watch it is the coverage IMO, channel 5 is just not an appealing channel, the presenting is poor, the commentary is dire, whereas Sky have an exciting build up, some querky pundits, passionate commentators and fundamentally advertise well, not many people probably even know Italin football is on channel 5.

The football though certainly isn't dull, it just needs better promotion.

Blue knows his football. Great poster. There are a lot of posters here who understand the Permiership and Spanish Primera however there is a lot of ignorance about Serie A. Did someone really say that Villareal are better than Fiorentina and JUVE?

Calidad wrote:I also feel for blue a bit. He's a great poster, but sadly the Serie A contingent seems to be dropping away from the board. Kaka posts a bit, but what happened to Pirlo, Pippo & Red & Black, Tarun, Waft & and that other Inter fan?

Gigliati wrote:Blue knows his football. Great poster. There are a lot of posters here who understand the Permiership and Spanish Primera however there is a lot of ignorance about Serie A. Did someone really say that Villareal are better than Fiorentina and JUVE?

Calidad wrote:I also feel for blue a bit. He's a great poster, but sadly the Serie A contingent seems to be dropping away from the board. Kaka posts a bit, but what happened to Pirlo, Pippo & Red & Black, Tarun, Waft & and that other Inter fan?

Yeah it was tweedle, but as most of us know his ignorance knows no end. How he could even contemplate that....just isnt worth thinking about

L r d wrote:

Gigliati wrote:Blue knows his football. Great poster. There are a lot of posters here who understand the Permiership and Spanish Primera however there is a lot of ignorance about Serie A. Did someone really say that Villareal are better than Fiorentina and JUVE?

Calidad wrote:I also feel for blue a bit. He's a great poster, but sadly the Serie A contingent seems to be dropping away from the board. Kaka posts a bit, but what happened to Pirlo, Pippo & Red & Black, Tarun, Waft & and that other Inter fan?

Yeah it was tweedle, but as most of know his ignorance knows no end. How he could even contemplate that....just isnt worth thinking about

Well I know more than your rather limited NBU attitude to football



I bet you Villarreal go further in the UEFA cup than Fiorentina.

Tweedle wrote:

L r d wrote:

Gigliati wrote:Blue knows his football. Great poster. There are a lot of posters here who understand the Permiership and Spanish Primera however there is a lot of ignorance about Serie A. Did someone really say that Villareal are better than Fiorentina and JUVE?

Calidad wrote:I also feel for blue a bit. He's a great poster, but sadly the Serie A contingent seems to be dropping away from the board. Kaka posts a bit, but what happened to Pirlo, Pippo & Red & Black, Tarun, Waft & and that other Inter fan?

Yeah it was tweedle, but as most of know his ignorance knows no end. How he could even contemplate that....just isnt worth thinking about

Well I know more than your rather limited NBU attitude to football



I bet you Villarreal go further in the UEFA cup than Fiorentina.

I hope they meet each other at some point. Maybe Villareal would knock them out like they knocked inter out of the cl Villareal top of la liga, but to be better than Fiorentina is insane

I've done this three times now Lrd. They've finished in the top 8 four seasons running. The two seasons they didn't finish in the top 5 were the seasons they were in semi finals in European competitions.

Fiorentina has had two good seasons and have just lost their star player. Mutu us good, and Pazzini is an exciting young forward but I still think that Villarreal are the better club, although losing Forlan was a big blow for them, as was the loss of Riquleme

Perhaps they will. Maybe they will go further than Bayern as well. Does not make them a better side.

I am more surprised that you put them ahead of Juventus! Because player on player Juventus are a top 10 side in europe.

Tweedle wrote:
I bet you Villarreal go further in the UEFA cup than Fiorentina.

Gigliati wrote:Perhaps they will. Maybe they will go further than Bayern as well. Does not make them a better side.

I am more surprised that you put them ahead of Juventus! Because player on player Juventus are a top 10 side in europe.

Tweedle wrote:
I bet you Villarreal go further in the UEFA cup than Fiorentina.

Exactly, it's foolish to judge ability of teams on a cup run

Tweedle wrote:I've done this three times now Lrd. They've finished in the top 8 four seasons running. The two seasons they didn't finish in the top 5 were the seasons they were in semi finals in European competitions.

Fiorentina has had two good seasons and have just lost their star player. Mutu us good, and Pazzini is an exciting young forward but I still think that Villarreal are the better club, although losing Forlan was a big blow for them, as was the loss of Riquleme

For sure. Forlan and Riquelme leaving made them change a lot. But this is a team that will finish top 7, where in that top 7 i am not sure, being compared to two teams who will finish between 4 and 7 in seria a., Not much difference if any. Man for man is not how football works. I would have my money on villareal against either side. But maybe it will change in future years especially for juventus.

Fiorentina finished in the top 4 for the last 2 seasons on points! You can compare us to Roma, Valencia and Arsenal from a domestic league point of view, not Villareal.

Fiorentina have done better than Roma in the last 2 seasons in Serie A, go check it out! So are you saying that Villareal are also better than Roma?

Tweedle wrote:I've done this three times now Lrd. They've finished in the top 8 four seasons running. The two seasons they didn't finish in the top 5 were the seasons they were in semi finals in European competitions.

Fiorentina has had two good seasons and have just lost their star player. Mutu us good, and Pazzini is an exciting young forward but I still think that Villarreal are the better club, although losing Forlan was a big blow for them, as was the loss of Riquleme

Juventus have two good strikers, a decent ageing winger, a very good centre back, a top class midfielder (tiago) a hot left back prospect and a world class keeper but aside from that they are average.

Lets see:

Bayern
Man Utd
Chelsea
Liverpool
Arsenal
Barcelona
Valencia
Milan
Inter
Real Madrid.

Which ones of those are Juventus better than?

Gigliati wrote:Perhaps they will. Maybe they will go further than Bayern as well. Does not make them a better side.

I am more surprised that you put them ahead of Juventus! Because player on player Juventus are a top 10 side in europe.

Juve are better than Bayern and possibly Valencia, it depends, could Juve beat most of them? probably

Gigliati wrote:Fiorentina finished in the top 4 for the last 2 seasons on points! You can compare us to Roma, Valencia and Arsenal from a domestic league point of view, not Villareal.

Fiorentina have done better than Roma in the last 2 seasons in Serie A, go check it out! So are you saying that Villareal are also better than Roma?

I'm not saying that they're better than Roma, no.

Fiorentina in both seasons haven't had any European competition to worry about, so that's 10/15 games less than the other top teams in Serie A. Villarreal in each of those years have been playing in Europe and two of the past four seasons they've reached semi finals of European competitons. That's a hell of a lot of extra games to worry about

Luis wrote:Juve are better than Bayern and possibly Valencia, it depends, could Juve beat most of them? probably

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

Juve's goalkeeper is better but aside from that, Bayern are stronger in pretty much every position

Tweedle wrote:

Luis wrote:Juve are better than Bayern and possibly Valencia, it depends, could Juve beat most of them? probably

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

Juve's goalkeeper is better but aside from that, Bayern are stronger in pretty much every position

Juve will finish top 3 possibly in a tough league, the German league is no way near as good,