The number of professional clubs in Italy is falling

I've spent the last couple of years trotting about the lower echelons of Italian football and it never fails to surprise me what a disorganised mess things are down there. The number of clubs is absurd, as is how they have been arranged in recent years. Try as I might I could not fathom last season's restructure of Seconda Divisione (4th level) from 3 regional divisions to 2 that didn't seem to have any geographical logic whatsoever. A lot of the teams down there would rival Scottish Division 3 clubs in terms of attendances - Renate who I saw last season for instance seem to serve simply as a feeder team for Atalanta and don't have any fans beyond the families and friends of the players. These tiny outifits are expected to travel the length of the country on a regular basis, so it's no wonder such a glut have gone to the wall this summer. One, slimmed down level below Serie B would seem to be a sensible way forward.

@ jobi1

I think Seconda Divisione was basically a north-south split but with two groups instead of three, teams in the far north and far south had some long journeys. On the other hand, the Prima Divisione groups each contained a mixture of teams from south and north.

In the coming season all groups will be north-south split, except that Sicilian clubs Trapani (Prima Divisione) and Milazzo (Seconda Divisione) will play in the northern group because flights to away games will be more convenient.

On the subject of attendances, the best supported club in Seconda Divisione last season was Catanzaro (average 3842) in the southern group and Mantova (1902) in the north. This is explained by the fact that there is far less competition in the south. The worst supported were Aprilla (211) in the south and, yes, Renate (180) in the north.

This emphasises for the umpteenth time that when it comes to going out and supporting your club in the flesh, England is light years ahead of most if not all of the rest of the world. Conference South and North clubs get attendances that most clubs in Seconda Divisione can only dream of.

Italians love talking about football, but they are rather less keen on watching it in the flesh below the top level. With every Serie A game live on TV, they prefer the comfort of their home or sitting with their mates in a bar to the often dilapidated facilities of their local club.

For those who are interested in these things, and to complete the statistics, Ternana were the best supported club in Prima Divisione Group A (average 5316) and pulled in the biggest crowd (10206) v Taranto. Lumezzane (378) were the worst-supported club, but Tritium v Sorrento (estimated 200) was the lowest official attendance.

In group B Spezia averaged 4691 and their game with Latina was watched by 9576, while Portogruaro averaged 566, with two of their home games watched by 372.

Maximum and minimum attendances in Seconda Divisione are estimated. In Group A 2500 for Mantova v Giacomense and in Group B 8000 for Catanzaro v Giulianova, while at the other end of the scale the attendance for numerous games was given as 100.

So out of a total of 1412 games only one pulled in a five figure crowd.

And remember that we're talking here of the equivalents of Leagues 1 and 2 in a country with a population of 60 million that's supposed to be football-mad.

As someone who lived in Italy for five years and has followed Italian football for much longer, I strongly concur with both jobi and geobra. The situation in the lower leagues is both shambolic and depressing.

Given that a significant number of the smaller clubs are essentially vanity projects for local notables with limited resources, the introduction of any kind of financial rigour was always going to result in clubs going to the wall, as they are simply unsustainable on the gates geobra details. It's also worth noting that ancillary revenue from sources such as television are also essentially non-existent at this level.

The clubs that do draw are those that have an established tradition and/or those that are rising quickly through the pyramid.

It isn't coincidence that the likes of Mantova, Spezia and Ternana have all spent a number of seasons in Serie A and/or Serie B, or that they each represent cities of a decent size (Mantova is the smallest, at roughly 50,000, but is also the richest, and has the strongest football history).

In many ways Serie D, with its 9 regionalised groups that mean short journeys to most away games and lots of derbies, is better organised and more interesting than Lega Pro. It also has a psychological advantage in that it is the top of the non or semi-professional pyramid rather than the bottom of the professional game. And it attracts players who are good enough for Lega Pro but would rather combine their football with a job. The drawback is that every club must have on the field at all times four players born between (for the coming season) 1992 and 1994. This sometimes means that a player who has cut his teeth between the ages of 18 and 21 can lose his place at 22. The idea is to encourage the development of young players and it is laudable, but many think two rather than four would be a better number. Four also severely limits the coach's options when deciding who goes on the bench.

Definitely agree with that. I saw a few great games in Serie D last season, with the quality easily comparable with the lower end of the professional game. The watching experience also has the benefit of being outside the filthy clutches of the Tessera del Tifoso and the NATO-level security that there is just one division up, which means if you fancy going along you can just rock up and hand over your tenner on the gate rather than have to plan all the logistics of where and when you have to go to have all your particulars taken and get one of those precious tickets for a game at which (as geobra's stats confirm) will probably only have a few hundred folk in attendance anyway. There's a great opportunity potentially to get a lot of bodies through turnstyles, but obviously that would require some effort on someone's part to do a bit of advertising, which in Italy will never happen.

I also saw some excellent games in Serie D last season, much more enjoyable than the dross I had to endure in Serie B.

Serie D, with its 166 teams, some from villages, some from cities with more than 100000 inhabitants, can truly be described as 'the tournament of all the Italys'.

Unlike its professional counterparts, it also has very few teams with points deductions for financial or other irregularities, which makes it a much more meaningful tournament.

It has to be said, though, that where it represents the highest level of football available, there can be problems. In Ancona's group, for example, restrictions were placed on away supporters and trouble was feared when Ancona played historic rivals Sambenedettese and Civitanovese.

However, to anyone flying into Milan for a weekend of lower division football in northern Italy, I would suggest Serie D rather than Lega Pro.

Interested parties can download the entire Serie D schedule here.

It helpfully contains addresses for all of the grounds, as some of the clubs will be unfamiliar to even hard core fans of the Italian game (while the current situation of others, such as post-bankruptcy SPAL or Pistoiese, can be a bit depressing).

Apart from 'fallen giants', most clubs in Serie D are happy to stay where they are, recognising that they have gone as high as they can. The extra costs involved in moving up could lead to financial ruin, whereas going down just means playing at a slightly lower but still local level. They are basically simply providing a decent and affordable level of relatively stress-free football for their local communities.

I'm particularly looking forward to this season in my local section (Girone B), as Pro Sesto, geographically my nearest 'big' team have arrived there on their way back up from the brink of oblivion, while another biggish team I had a great time visiting, Lecco, have just dropped in from above. Could be a very competitive section.

In my early years in Italy, I visited both grounds regularly. Now I can't really be bothered and in any case I'm surrounded by three Serie D teams, Pontisola, Aurora Seriate and AlzanoCene, here in Bergamo. When Atalanta are playing away and they are at home, I shall be watching Pontisola, a 10-minute bus ride from my flat, and a 10-minute walk from the station if anyone decides to try one of their games.

Lecco is a classic English non-league ground, and a rare example at this level of a '4-sided' stadium. Sadly, there is a violent minority among their fans, and only a few days ago they attacked four players. Their recently-installed Italo-American owner was the real target, and already he wants out. I think that they are in for a very hard season. They are an example of a 'fallen giant' whose fans are certainly not happy to see them playing at this level. They even had a few seasons in Serie A in the 1960s.

Here too the ground is a 10-minute walk from the station, from which you can see the floodlights.

PS The station for Pontisola is Ponte San Pietro, the last stop before Bergamo coming from Lecco or Milan Porta Garibaldi.

Ah yes, Pontisola is on my target list (yes, I actually have a list, on an excel spreadsheet *sigh*), but didn't make it last season. Might have to pop over when Pro Sesto are there this time round.

Lecco's ground is one of my favourites that I've been to in the country, though definitely not one to visit with a hangover, as every inch of the inside is painted lurid blue and yellow!

Geobra, didnt know you were Bergamasco. It's a great city.

How are Albinoleffe dealing with their relegation? I'm afraid it wouldn't surprise me to see them in Serie D.

@ ursus actos

I've been here for 25 years, so I suppose I'm a Bergamasco by adoption. And whatever I write here about other clubs, Atalanta is my team.

AlbinoLeffe? I saw them lose 3-0 in the cup to Chieti, from Seconda Division, and the score didn't lie. They appear to be about to embark on their Prima Divisione campaign with a team for which the term inexperienced would be an overstatement. As they will begin with a penalty of (at least) 10 points, they need a team that would be chasing promotion without that penalty to have any real chance of staying up, especially when you consider that they will only be playing 32 games.

I have no idea what their long-term strategy is, because it is easier to find out what is happening in North Korea than to discover what's going on inside AlbinoLeffe these days. I will therefore not be renewing my season ticket, and when they are playing at the same time, I will be giving my support and my money to Pontisola.

It's a sad end to what once seemed like a fairy story. I don't think that they will ever be back, and in 10 (maybe fewer) years from now I doubt that the club will still exist.

Grazie mille.

Albinoleffe have always been a strange club. We went up for a game when we lived in Milan, and I was excited when they spoke up for the non-Italian population, but they were never going to displace Atalanta and seemed to have difficulty carrying through any of their initiatives.

I'm left wondering whether they wouldn't be better off de-merging (the combination always struck me as a shotgun marriage).

They can't really, because they've burnt their boats by cutting themselves off from their roots in Albino and Leffe, where two new clubs, bearing the old clubs' names, have been formed. So, with their boats well and truly scuppered, they have to either swim or sink on their own!

You're right that it was a bit of a shotgun marriage, as the two towns and the supporters of their respective clubs didn't get on well. It was a bit like what happened in Inverness, except that there the team remains in the city, whereas AlbinoLeffe has become the second team of Bergamo. And so far the Inverness merger has succeeded beyond anyone's wildest dreams, and presumably silenced even the most fervent doubters.

AlbinoLeffe made a serious tactical mistake when Atalanta fell into Serie B in 2010-2011. Instead of offering cut-price season tickets, as Atalanta did, they increased their prices and saw their season-ticket holders more than halve from 2,500 to 1,200. And this just when it seemed that they had found a niche and were beginning to create a fanbase of respectable proportions.

It's been more or leaa sll downhill since then, and I will not be surprised if crowds are in three figures for many games in the coming season.

In the Serie B days I several times came across little groups over from England for a football weekend at their games.

'more or less all downhill'

If the truth be told, AlbinoLeffe's decline began when they sacked coach Elio Gustinetti one game before the end of the 2007-2008 season with Serie A promotion play-offs just round the corner. It's true that there was an apparently irreconcilable character clash between him and club owner Gianfranco Andreoletti, but this was hardly the moment to bring it into the open.

But Andreoletti has been the architect both of their rise and their decline. He is a control freak, and he has made at least two other serious strategic mistakes. One was a failure to forge a good working relationship with Atalanta, which resulted in many promising players who could have gone out on loan to AlbinoLeffe going elsewhere. And the other was engaging in stand offs with players whose only 'crime' was that they did not intend to renew their contracts, and who for this found themselves out of the team until or unless they toed the line. Mobbing, in other words.

If you add some truly incomprehensible decisions regarding the coaching staff last season, and the failure to add a single new face to an inadequate squad in January, it is not surpriasing that many in Bergamo think that he wanted to go down. Another reason, if true, for not renewing one's season ticket.

And to think that 5 years ago AlbinoLeffe were seen as a model club!