Comments on: The Lower Leagues in Italy http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/01/04/the-lower-leagues-in-italy/ Exploring football culture around the world. Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:46:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: toni http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/01/04/the-lower-leagues-in-italy/#comment-5037 toni Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:13:25 +0000 http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/01/04/the-lower-leagues-in-italy/#comment-5037 great article ... really enjoyed it great article … really enjoyed it

]]> By: A. http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/01/04/the-lower-leagues-in-italy/#comment-2072 A. Sun, 06 Jan 2008 08:30:16 +0000 http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/01/04/the-lower-leagues-in-italy/#comment-2072 Nice article. It seems that Italy also has plenty of strength in depth in professional football. Nice article. It seems that Italy also has plenty of strength in depth in professional football.

]]> By: ursus arctos http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/01/04/the-lower-leagues-in-italy/#comment-2067 ursus arctos Sat, 05 Jan 2008 08:59:58 +0000 http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2008/01/04/the-lower-leagues-in-italy/#comment-2067 Carissima, were you not in Italy for the wonders of the Mediaset reality show "Campioni, il Sogno"? Cervia Vodafone were the protagonists of that train wreck, in which Ciccio Graziani (ex-Toro, Fiorentina, Italy and, um, Toronto Blizzard) managed a group of 18 to 22 year olds playing for the prize of a trial with one of the Big Three at the end of the year. The club was reasonably successful, but the show relied too much on a few teen idol types, and none of the "stars" stuck with the big clubs they trained with briefly. Serie D is relatively undeveloped in Lombardy, probably due to the fact that in addition to Inter, Milan and Atalanta, "we" have a number of teams in B and even more in C1 and C2, while Serie D tends to thrive in areas of the country that are relatively under-represented at higher levels (Calabria and the Trentino come to mind, with Como being the exception that proves the rule). Another classic aspect of the Serie D experience is "L'Angolo del' D", a fifteen minute insert on the RAI radio program preceding the Saturday night posticipo, which I often listen to while making dinner. I have thus often heard interviews with the managers of clubs I couldn't locate on a map. The whole vibe around Serie D (and even C2) is rather different from that of non-League football in England; it can also suffer from serious bouts of violence, as local passions overwhelm the meagre security afforded clubs at that level. Carissima, were you not in Italy for the wonders of the Mediaset reality show “Campioni, il Sogno”? Cervia Vodafone were the protagonists of that train wreck, in which Ciccio Graziani (ex-Toro, Fiorentina, Italy and, um, Toronto Blizzard) managed a group of 18 to 22 year olds playing for the prize of a trial with one of the Big Three at the end of the year. The club was reasonably successful, but the show relied too much on a few teen idol types, and none of the “stars” stuck with the big clubs they trained with briefly.

Serie D is relatively undeveloped in Lombardy, probably due to the fact that in addition to Inter, Milan and Atalanta, “we” have a number of teams in B and even more in C1 and C2, while Serie D tends to thrive in areas of the country that are relatively under-represented at higher levels (Calabria and the Trentino come to mind, with Como being the exception that proves the rule). Another classic aspect of the Serie D experience is “L’Angolo del’ D”, a fifteen minute insert on the RAI radio program preceding the Saturday night posticipo, which I often listen to while making dinner. I have thus often heard interviews with the managers of clubs I couldn’t locate on a map.

The whole vibe around Serie D (and even C2) is rather different from that of non-League football in England; it can also suffer from serious bouts of violence, as local passions overwhelm the meagre security afforded clubs at that level.

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