''Football Italia'' was a television programme in the United Kingdom, showing

Italian football Football ( it, calcio ) is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italy national football team is considered to be one of the best national teams in the world. They have won the FIFA World Cup four times ( 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), trailing on ...

, that ran from

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

, and continued until

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

on other channels. It was known as ''Football Italiano'' in its final season. The show centred on live coverage of

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

, the top division in the Italian football league system. James Richardson presented the show for a large part of its existence. The first live match shown was a 3–3 draw between Sampdoria and

Lazio it, Laziale , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

on 6 September 1992, attracting three million UK viewers. ''Gazzetta Football Italia'', a highlights show, became the highest-rated Saturday morning program in Channel 4's history at the time, with around 800,000 viewers a week in its first season,

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

. At its peak in the 1990s, ''Football Italia'' attracted over 3 million viewers, and remains the most watched programme in the UK about a non-British domestic football league.Arrivederci, James, and thanks for the memories
Ingle, James. The Guardian. 20 December 2006. Accessed 16 September 2011 Presenter James Richardson was popular for his humour and his ability to avoid many of the

cliché A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...

s of football presenting. After being shown on

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

in the 2007–08 season, ''Football Italiano'' was cancelled by the channel and did not continue elsewhere on television.

History

Serie A was first shown regularly in Britain in 1988 on Channel 4's partner broadcaster in Wales,

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...

. In 1990,

British Satellite Broadcasting British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) was a television company, headquartered in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. They started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. The company was merged with ...

brought the first live Italian football to a small number of British homes with

squarial The Squarial (a portmanteau of the words ''square'' and '' aerial'') was a satellite antenna used for reception of the now defunct British Satellite Broadcasting television service (BSB). The Squarial was a flat plate satellite antenna, built to ...

s on The Sports Channel, which later became

BSkyB Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

Channel 4 (1992–2002)

In 1992 Channel 4 acquired the rights to broadcast Serie A in the United Kingdom, paying £1.5m for coverage for the 1992–93 season. ''Football Italia'' was started as a response to several factors: the English top-flight was no longer on free-to-air terrestrial television but on

, England star player

Paul Gascoigne Paul John Gascoigne (, born 27 May 1967), nicknamed Gazza, is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is described by the National Football Museum as "widely recognised as the most naturally talent ...

had transferred to

, and

's European football programme

Sgorio () is a Welsh-language football television programme produced by Rondo Media for S4C. First broadcast on 5 September 1988, it is one of S4C's longest-running shows and renowned for its coverage of European football, but for the first few years ...

had good ratings. Italy's Serie A contained many of the world's best players, with its clubs paying spectacularly high

transfer fees In professional football, a transfer is the action taken whenever a player under contract moves between clubs. It refers to the transferring of a player's registration from one association football club to another. In general, the players can on ...

. The quality of English football was seen as lower, partly due to its 1985–90 ban from

UEFA competitions UEFA competitions (french: competitions de l'UEFA), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur asso ...

, brought on by hooliganism. Channel 4 had brief experience of showing football:

Martin Tyler Martin Tyler (born 14 September 1945) is an English football commentator. He has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports since 1990, covering the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, as well as other domestic and international competition ...

reported on the 1983

Brazilian Cup The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça ...

Final; in 1985, it carried ITV's live coverage of an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

–

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

. The

Women's FA Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup Competition is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup and now Women's FA Cup (Vitality Women's FA Cup for sponsorship reas ...

was prominently televised on Channel 4 from

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

until 1993 to millions of viewers. Paul Gascoigne 2021

Television production company Chrysalis had worked with

on a documentary about his return from injury called ''Gascoigne – The Fightback''. Afterwards, Gascoigne said to producer Neil Duncanson that it was a shame that British viewers would be unable to see his Serie A games.

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

players David Platt and Des Walker were also with Serie A clubs at the time. Chrysalis approached the

Italian Football Federation The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It ...

regarding UK broadcast rights for the

games. The Federation were unwilling to offer the rights to just

's games, but encouraged a bid for the rights to show all Serie A games.Part Two (1992–2002): "I Didn’t Get Off Massively on Saint and Greavsie"
offthetelly.co.uk, December 2002 Channel 4 outbid Sky to take the UK rights for Serie A. This also involved negotiations between Channel 4 and

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

, the holder of the league's international rights for 1992–93. On 6 September 1992, Channel 4 transmitted its first live Italian match – Sampdoria v Lazio. Gascoigne did not play due to injury, but the broadcast had three million viewers. Veteran broadcaster

Kenneth Wolstenholme Kenneth Wolstenholme, DFC & Bar (17 July 1920 – 25 March 2002) was an English football commentator for BBC television in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best remembered for his commentary during the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final; in the closing minu ...

linked off screen, and

Peter Brackley Peter Brackley (13 June 1951 – 14 October 2018) was an English football commentator, perhaps most famous for commentating for ''Football Italia'' on Channel 4 in the 1990s, for the computer game series ''Pro Evolution Soccer'' until '' Pro Evo ...

and Paul Elliott commentated. Paul Gascoigne was the intended presenter of ''Gazzetta'', a highlights programme. The title was a play on his nickname, Gazza, and the programme contained voiceovers by Wolstenholme. Gascoigne hosted the first few episodes, but didn't always turn up when he was supposed to film, and he was soon replaced by James Richardson, a producer who had not worked in front of the camera previously. Gascoigne continued to be the subject of many interviews and reports in the series. Richardson became the host of the series's main two programmes: the live weekly Sunday afternoon match titled ''Football Italia'', commentated on by Brackley (or sometimes Gary Bloom), and ''Gazzetta Football Italia'' on Saturday mornings, which contained the highlights of the previous week's matches and a piece on Italian culture. It would also consist of

interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...

s with players, often Gascoigne, usually walking around an Italian city. These were often deliberately humorous, such as when Richardson performed the lambada with

Attilio Lombardo Attilio Lombardo (; born 6 January 1966) is an Italian retired football player turned manager; he is currently the assistant manager for the Italy national team. Throughout his career he was usually deployed as a wide midfielder, or as an of ...

. A regular part of ''Gazzetta'' had Richardson explaining football stories from Italian newspapers as he sat in the sunshine outside a café. During the last series, which was broadcast in the early hours of the morning, Richardson sat at a café outside the

Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone St ...

, usually in front of a large

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

dessert Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and most parts o ...

, and a proportion of each course would vanish between each set of match highlights. Other contributors to the series included

Don Howe Donald Howe (12 October 1935 – 23 December 2015) was an English football player, coach, manager and pundit. As a right back Howe featured for clubs West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal together with the England national football team in his pla ...

, Luther Blissett, Ray Wilkins and

Joe Jordan Joseph Jordan (born 15 December 1951) is a Scottish football player, coach and manager. He is currently a first-team coach at AFC Bournemouth. A former striker, he played for Leeds United, Manchester United, and Milan, among others at club ...

. Notable broadcasts included a 1995

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

match abandoned at half time. A Genoa fan had been murdered before the game, and the spread of the news sparked crowd trouble. ''Football Italia: Mezzanotte'' (Midnight) was a late-night program with coverage of the Italian Sunday night game. Broadcast weekly from 1993–94 on Tuesday nights, ''Mezzanotte'' was shown on Thursday night in

and on Sundays after moving to Bravo in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

. Channel 4 also covered some Italian international matches live, including Italy's 1998 World Cup qualifying playoffs against

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

, which finished 2–1 on aggregate. A light-hearted trailer for the matches, with the voiceover "Will the Russians rub their faces in it?" while showing an Italian fan's face being rubbed in a plate of

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Rice flour, or legumes such as beans or lentils, ...

, led to questions in the

Italian parliament The Italian Parliament ( it, Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitio ...

and caused 12 complaints (not upheld) to the ITC. Richardson said, "Everywhere Channel Four was being labelled as anti-Italian. In the end we re-enacted a spoof version where

Pierluigi Casiraghi Pierluigi Casiraghi (; born 4 March 1969) is an Italian professional football coach and former player who played as a striker. Casiraghi began his playing career in Italy in 1985, with Monza. He later played for Juventus, and Lazio, before endi ...

shoved my face in a plate of

spaghetti Spaghetti () is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta.spaghetti
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridg ...

." For the

2000–01 Serie A The 2000–01 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 99th season of top-tier Italian football, the 69th in a round-robin tournament. It was contested by 18 teams, for the 13th consecutive season since 1988–89. Ro ...

season, the Sunday afternoon live games became more infrequent. The most telling sign came when Channel 4 abandoned coverage of the 2001 title decider with seven minutes remaining, the match having been disrupted by a pitch invasion by fans of

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council * Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

. Just 12 months earlier, Channel 4 had accommodated schedule changes when a rainstorm held up

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

's unsuccessful 1999–2000 title bid. Channel 4 showed their final live Serie A match on 17 June 2001, between

and

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second m ...

. Live coverage was abandoned altogether in 2001–02, which was Serie A's final season on Channel 4.

British Eurosport (2003–2005)

After Channel 4 dropped Italian football, Serie A returned to British screens halfway through the 2002–03 season when British Eurosport bought the rights.

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

had considered bidding for the rights in April 2002, but didn't do so. Eurosport's weekly live match was the "showpiece" Sunday evening 7pm kick-off, a fixture Channel 4 had never had the rights to show live. British Eurosport held the rights until

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

, with Richardson again presenting.

Bravo (2005–2006)

Bravo and

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previ ...

covered Serie A under a joint agreement from

to the end of the 2006–07 season. After poor viewing figures, Bravo discontinued their coverage on 23 December 2006. The

2006 Serie A scandal 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

had tarnished the league's reputation and had forcibly relegated top club

. Pundits on the programme at this time included Lee Sharpe and

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939), commonly known as "Big Ron" or "Mr. Bojangles", is an English former football player and manager. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits. Nic ...

Five (2007–2008)

gained the rights to broadcast Serie A highlights and live games in the 2007–08 season. The show thus returned to terrestrial television and live games were shown weekly at 1:30pm UK time on Sundays, as the original series on Channel 4. Under the new name of ''Football Italiano'' the show was presented by Mark Chapman and Italian sportscaster and model Laura Esposto. The first game shown was a 1–1 draw between

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter i ...

and Udinese on Sunday 26 August 2007 with Tony Jones and John Barnes as the commentators. The opening theme song in this version of the show was "Phantom pt. II" by

Justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

. The show's end was announced on 27 June 2008, on the ''Football Italiano'' website. The message, posted by James Sugure, read: "Unfortunately, it is now unlikely that Five will be continuing their Football Italiano television coverage of Serie A for the 2008–09 season. As a result, this website will now be suspended until further notice. On behalf of all the team here at Football Italiano, I would like to thank you for your support over the last year."Football Italiano website
27 June 2008

Legacy

Italian football was absent from British TV for the 2008–09 season, other than live coverage of the

Milan derby The Derby della Madonnina, also known as the Derby di Milano (Milan Derby, in English), is a derby football match between the two prominent Milanese clubs, Internazionale and A.C. Milan. It is called ''Derby della Madonnina'' in honour of one ...

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

. From 2009–10 season up to 2012–13 season coverage of Serie A was shown on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

, and since 2013–14 season it has been shown on

BT Sport BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Bro ...

. They show numerous live games per week during the Serie A season, including those of the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

. ESPN do not however use the ''Football Italia'' title for their programmes. For part of the 2018/19 Serie A season onwards, the league is no longer shown on TV in Britain. Instead, a streaming service called

Eleven Sports Eleven Sports is a multinational sports and entertainment media group. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, it is owned by Andrea Radrizzani's sports and media investment platform Aser Ventures. Eleven Sports' business model initially centred a ...

shows them, later having one of their matches simulcast on the STV Player in Scotland. Eleven Sports' first Serie A game involved

playing away. It was made available live and free on Eleven's

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

page. That ran into problems. The final half of this Serie A season will move to

Premier Sports Viaplay Sports and Premier Sports are a group of pay television sports channels owned by Viaplay Group. Viaplay Sports holds exclusive live UK and Republic of Ireland TV rights to La Liga, Scottish League Cup, Elite Ice Hockey League, NHL an ...

, it was announced on 30 January 2019. Since Football Italia launched, a number of other European domestic leagues have now been broadcast on British television. Ultimately, the series' popularity fell as Italian football slipped behind first Spanish and then English in the

UEFA Coefficients In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments, and after applied in wom ...

and the perceived level of quality. In particular, the end of the show coincided with the

2006 Italian football scandal ''Calciopoli'' () was a sports scandal in Italy's top professional association football league Serie A and to a lesser extent Serie B. Involving various clubs and numerous executives, both from the same clubs and from the main Italian footbal ...

, and a loss in reputation for Italian club football. The 2018 BT Sport film ''Golazzo: The Football Italia Story'' took a nostalgic look back at the success of the Channel 4 programme and the influence it had on viewers, including young British footballers, who had free access to Serie A for the first time.

''Golaço!''

The show became well known in

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

for a shout of ''Golaço!'', Portuguese for "fantastic goal", featured at the start and at the end of each show. The sound clip is of Italian television football commentator

José Altafini José João Altafini (; born 24 July 1938), also known as "Mazzola" in Brazil (as when he started to play it was noted that he resembled the Italian legend Valentino Mazzola), is an Italian-Brazilian former footballer, who played as a forward. ...

, a Brazilian who played in

for

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and Juventus. "''Golaço!''" was transcribed as "''Golaccio!''" in the show's titles.The earliest ever kick-off
The Guardian – The Knowledge However, James Richardson later added, "I heard Steve /nowiki>DuBerry/nowiki> who'd produced the music for the show say he'd wanted it to sound like 'go Lazio' because of Paul Gascoigne presenting it and so had added a twist to the soundbite."

Theme tune and idents

In 1992, the theme tune to the show was adapted with the addition of vocals to become "I'm Stronger Now" by Definitive Two. The shout of "Golaccio!" featured in the show's start and end titles was omitted from the song. Channel 4 produced special idents specifically for its Italian football programs in the 1990s. The channel's familiar multi-coloured "4" logo appeared, a football bounced off the logo to the sound of a cheering crowd, and the logo turned the colours of the

Italian flag The national flag of Italy ( it, Bandiera d'Italia, ), often referred to in Italian as ''il Tricolore'' ( en, the Tricolour, ) is a tricolour (flag), tricolour featuring three equally sized vertical Pale (heraldry), pales of green, white and red, ...

. This was in keeping with other idents the channel had made specially for NFL

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

and

sumo wrestling is a form of competitive full-contact wrestling where a ''rikishi'' (wrestler) attempts to force his opponent out of a circular ring (''dohyō'') or into touching the ground with any body part other than the soles of his feet (usually by thr ...

Website and magazine

The Channel 4 version's producer, John D. Taylor, launched an accompanying website, initially under the Channel 4 web domain, also called ''Football Italia''. After Channel 4 lost the rights to Serie A coverage in 2002, Taylor took full ownership, launching JDT Sports Productions and the website ''Football-Italia.net'', which also included the magazine of the same name. The website was later sold to Tiro Media in 2014

Channels featured on

''Football Italia'' has been shown on the following channels throughout its history: *Channel 4:

, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00, 2000–01, 2001–02 *British Eurosport: Last half of 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05 *Bravo: 2005–06, first half of 2006–07 *Five: 2007–08