A Tribute to Football Italia

This is my tribute to the greatest football show ever. Football Italia.

The show was presented by James Richardson and was first broadcasting in 1992 on Channel 4. The show was the first to offer live coverage of Serie A football, the top flight in Italian league football.

The first live match shown was between Sampdoria and Lazio, it ended in a 3--3 draw and drew 3 million viewers.

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.

Bravo and Setanta Sports signed a joint deal, taking them through to the end of the 2006--07 season. [1] Poor viewing figures on Bravo saw them announce they would not be showing any matches after December 23, 2006.

The music which is playing in this video is the 7" Edit version of a track called "I'm Stronger Now" which was written by Ben Chapman and Steve Duberry, performed by Definitive Two and was released on the Deconstruction label in 1992. The track was then reworked on and used for the theme tune to Football Italia. One of the notable changes being the inclusion of the well known golaccio!

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Gazzetta
• Football
• Italia

[junxs64]

Thats not how i remember the music :(

Im sure it was harder than this?

[maglavagna]

That's because this isn't the theme tune. This is the track that the theme tune was reworked from.

You can listen to the original theme tune here on Youtube.

[tottenham06]

thanks 4 posting this mate this brings back great memories i used to love watching football italia and being half italian i used to be torn between england and italy lol but the italian league no doubt from 92 to 98 was the best in the world shame its no good now

[maglavagna]

Just about everything eventually comes full circle and I'm sure that in time Serie A will once again regain its status as best league in the world but a hell of a lot needs to be done before there is any chance of that happening. Glad you liked the video!

[petemills39]

What is that music? I know it's the old Channel 4 music for football Italia but what is it?

[maglavagna]

The music which is playing in this video is the 7" Edit version of a track called "I'm Stronger Now" which was written by Ben Chapman and Steve Duberry, performed by Definitive Two and was released on the Deconstruction label in 1992. The track was then reworked on and used for the theme tune to Football Italia. One of the notable changes being the inclusion of the well known golaccio!

[makes662]

best footie show ever.....missed sooo much

[Aeroo123]

Loving it Loving it. What a legend show, remember this show soo well, getting up on Saturday morning and watching great goals, and this theme tune is just awesome :D Stupid sky has spoilt my fun on Saturday morning ^^ Come back Italia FOOOOOOOOOOTBALL :D

[LDP060681]

@maglavagna Italian football was the best back in the mid 90s.... Reggiana 0, Palermo 3...... and now here's an interview with Bepe Signiori....man that show was so fucking good. Do you have the clip where JR and Gazza do a BDSM scene?

[coloneldecker]

Yip, I'm not really interested in Italian football as such but Football Italia was just so much cooller than Sportscene or Scotsport. You could have James Richardson, in his Armani suit, sitting outside, sipping a Cappaccino or you could have Jim fucking Delahunt, wearing a Burtons shirt and tie set, in a cheapo studio. No wonder people think Scottish football is shit. It's just packaged so poorly.

[Kallytom]

I used to watch the highlights show on saturday mornings as a kid, so much quality in the mid 90's. Lost interest around 2000-2001 when the premiership picked up pace along with la liga!!

[spartak95]

Great Song and video

[krillindestructo]

@RIDDLER491 I'd say you have to say that Italian football was the best in the world between '89 and '96. When the old Milan side began to stumble that was when the other nations began to catch up.

[DadoReal]

Where is Maradona,Mattheus,Völler and austrian goalkeeper Konsel?

[IAMCANADIAN1998]

I bet if someone did a study they'd find that on average people who watch Italian football are more intelligent than those who just watch English or Spanish football. The latter two are simple and easy to understand, calcio on the other hand is a thinking game. =)

[rafalutionine]

best show ever

[RIDDLER491]

@tottenham06 I agree with you. I remember watching football italia in the 90s and it was the best league at the time. There were great players at italy. Ronaldo at inter, Zidane at Juve, Weah at milan and Baggio who was one the best players in the world and he was great to watch.

[MuAgeNet]

come to my chanel