rozhovor s wengerem:
Do you think it’s fair to say Serie A has lost some of its lustre since the 1990s?
AW: Yes, in the 1990s Italy was the most attractive country of all for foreign players. Everyone wanted to play in Italy to be recognised as a top player. I would remind you that Maradona played in Naples, Gullit and van Basten in Milan - everywhere you had top players. Clubs were allowed three foreign players, and they all played in the top Italian clubs.
Serie A had an exceptionally competitive championship for one basic reason - there were only 16 clubs and four went down every year. That means that positions 13, 14, 15 and 16 were all relegated. On top of that, back then the top seven or eight teams also got into the UEFA Cup, so at times a team could be playing to avoid relegation and to get into Europe at the same time. That means that every game was an absolute drama, and was sensational.
If you lost two games on the trot, then you were playing not to go down. If you won two on the trot, you were playing for Europe. And because it was so competitive, it was the best championship in the world at that time. They destroyed that by moving up to 20 teams and by selling the television rights individually. That made the championship more uneven, and the third thing that harmed them of course were all the repeated scandals they have had in the league. The corruption, the doping; it combined to destroy the credibility of their sport.