The 2010/2011 Serie A season seemed so far away and it felt like 2009/2010 just ended, but the new season is upon us. With today’s calendar drawing, it officially means the season is upon us. Tomorrow will be officially one month until kickoff. The season will run from August 29th to May 22nd. The first day of the season doesn’t have any big teams squaring off, but it has some interesting encounters. The big teams will be happy with their opponents. Here is the first matchday: Bari-Juventus; Chievo-Catania; Milan-Lecce; Parma-Brescia; Roma-Cesena; Sampdoria-Lazio; Udinese-Genoa; Palermo-Cagliari; Bologna-Inter; Fiorentina-Napoli. Inter will start their title defense on Monday, since they will be involved in the European Super Cup with Atletico Madrid on August 27th. The best game looks to be Fiorentina-Napoli, a battle between two teams looking to aim high. Other good games are Sampdoria-Lazio and Bari-Juventus (especially if Giovinco goes to Bari).

And now some notable games: Roma-Inter will take place on September 26th at the Olimpico in the 5th round. The following week, Inter host Juve at the San Siro on October 3rd. Milan-Juve will take place in the 9th round on October 31st. December 19th brings about a great day of action: Milan-Roma, Fiorentina-Inter, and Sampdoria-Genoa derby.

Speaking of derbies, the first one of the season will be Lazio-Roma on November 7th, and then two weeks later on November 14th will be Inter-Milan. Sampdoria-Genoa will be on December 19th as I said above, and the Puglia derby of Lecce-Bari is back in Serie A for the first time since 2001 and will take place on January 6th.

There are three midweek rounds: September 22nd, November 10th, and February 2nd.

There will be the traditional round played on the epiphany (January 6th) after the winter break but it may not happen because the player’s association is saying they would like a longer winter break. They said they are willing to move the January 6th round to a midweek round right before Christmas to have a longer break. Apparently a petition will be signed by players and presented to the Lega.

Prandelli’s Nazionale has Euro 2012 qualifying and therefore there will be 3 national team breaks throughout the season: September 5th, October 10th, and March 27th.

For a nice interactive full Serie A 2010/2011 calendar, click here.

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Gli Azzurri are finally about to enter a new era, one that fans have been looking forward to for months. Cesare Prandelli is coach of the azzurri and on August 10th, will lead the team in his first match in charge in a friendly against the Ivory Coast. The man himself is quiet, smart, and reserved, and might just be what the teams needs.

So for the rest of this week, every post will be about Prandelli. Today we kick it off with a look back on how he got the job to begin with: his stellar club record, where he made his name using limited resources.

Prandelli was a soccer player himself, a midfielder who spent six years at Juve amongst various other clubs. As a coach, he started out the way most do- managing youth teams. He was coach and youth coach of Atalanta for 7 years, before moving onto Lecce. Interestingly, Lecce was probably the worst point of his coaching career, where he did less than expected and was sacked. He was then hired by Hellas Verona, where his career began to rise. Over two seasons, he promoted the club to Serie A from B and then led them to a ninth place finish. Parma were quick to snap him up, and he spent two years there. The club was in the midst of financial difficulties and had to constantly sell their best players, including a ripe Marco Di Viao, but he somehow led the club to a seventh place finish. This would become a staple of Prandelli’s career- taking a club with limited resources- most of these were selling clubs- to fantastic heights.

He then joined Roma for a very short time, but had to leave to be with his cancer striken wife. He took over from Fiorentina in 2005, and never looked back. Since:

-2005-2006: Took the team from relegation battlers to Champions League qualification, although this was later stripped from them via Calciopoli. Won Panchina d’Oro for best Italian coach.
-2006-2007: Started with a 15 point deduction and ended the season in 5th place. Had they been allowed to keep those 15 points, he would’ve finished in fourth again. Secured UEFA Cup qualification ad won Panchina d’Oro yet again.
-2007-2008: Reached semis of the UEFA Cup and finally led the team to the fourth place finish that they had earned the past two years. Was awarded “Serie A Coach of the Year” at the Oscar del Calcio awards.
-2008-2009: Knocked out of the group stage of the Champions League but finished 4th in Serie A yet again.
-2009-2010: Reached the round of 16 in the CL where they were controversially knocked out by Bayern. Domestic troubles that year led to a disappointing 11th place finish.

(The one blemish on his career seemed to be last season at Fiorentina, but there are a few things to keep in mind. It was the first time that Fior were truly contending in the Champions’ League, with the year before being their first time in it, and the squad was not that deep. Taking them into the round of 16 was a fantastic achievement, and were it not for poor referees, they would’ve gone farther. The knockout against Bayern seemed to dampen the team’s spirit and cause a slump they couldn’t really get out of. Additionally, on a personal note, I’ve never seen such an unlucky team in Serie A. That year, the amount of times they hit the post/had good goals called off/ had offside goals go in against them was astonishing and sad to see.)

His accomplishments are even more impressive when you consider just how he did them. Prandelli has never been in charge of a rich club, one owned by oil tycoons or rich sheiks. Fiorentina were bankrupt in 2002, and by 2006 he had earned enough points with them to take them into the Champions’ League. He doesn’t run teams with immense squads or unlimited funds. He’s the total opposite of a Jose Mourinho, who’s success is inspired by money. Prandelli knows how to win without it.

He was allowed to speak to the FIGC in the summer of 2010 and became the Italy coach. If his club records are anything to go by, the man can take limited resources and turn a team into something special. He likes to play good attacking football and often incorporates young Italians into his team, such as Riccardo Montolivo whilst at Fiorentina. He also is quite shrewd on the transfer market and is able to see the talent that players have, not just the hype, as he proved when he brought the disgraced Gilardino to Fiorentina and turned him into one of the better strikers in Serie A.

This is the very short history of a young coach who seems destined for a brighter future and a return to Fiorentina, eventually. However his short term furture lies with gli azzurri, and next post will profile what his reign as azzurri coach should be like, based on his quotes so far.

As a side note, I’ll be on vacation till Sunday. Paul will take over posting duties, though, so no worries there.

Even though his agent Mino Raiola says nothing has been signed yet, Mario Balotelli will definitely be a Manchester City player by the end of the week. The soon to be 20 year old left with Inter for their USA tour (where they will play Manchester City in a friendly on Saturday) just to make it not obvious that he’s leaving. In the training sessions in the USA so far, the team has been working with the ball while Balotelli has been training alone in the gym and the pool. Balotelli will reunite with Roberto Mancini, who introduced Balotelli to Serie A two years ago. Love him or hate him, you have to acknowledge that Balotelli is a talent and personally I hope he fixes his head so he can finally realize his potential and become a star for Italy (especially at a time when Italy needs young talents). Am I hopeful? Not really. Balotelli is nuts. More news after the jump.

-Tomorrow the Serie A calendar will be unveiled. The same format will be used as last season (no seeding system) so it’s possible that the big teams could meet on the first day. Also the game times are a little different this season. Any team involved in a Champions League match during the week will play on Friday. Saturday stays the same with two games, one anticipo at 6 PM and a posticipo at 8:45. Sundays have changed. There will be a lunch time game like the EPL has at 12:30 pm (meaning earlier wake up times for US fans watching calcio, which stinks), followed by the other teams playing at the normal 3 PM and then the posticipo at 8:45 pm. The Lega will also experiment with a Monday night game like the EPL has, and the experiment will be used only 6 or 7 times this season. When a Monday night game is to be played, it will be the Saturday 6 PM anticipo which will be moved to the Monday slot. I don’t like this new schedule. Why did they have to change a good thing. They complain about Italian attendance records, yet they now expect people to forget about lunch on Sunday and go to a soccer game instead. Never get between Italians and food!

-Looks like Italy goalkeeper Federico Marchetti and Cagliari have decided to go their separate ways. While it’s always been known that Marchetti has had many clubs interested in him, it always looked like he would stay in Sardegna. However Cagliari owner Massimo Cellino didn’t like an interview Marchetti gave to Gazzetta dello Sport where he said he was open to leave. Cellino said Marchetti should have talked to him first. So, Cagliari have officially announced that Marchetti is on the market, and if he leaves, the starting goalkeeper will be Michele Agazzi and not Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino as some media outlets reported. For Marchetti, the most viable option right now looks like a move to England, seeing as most Italian sides have already taken care of their goalkeeping situation.

-Wondering why Sampdoria’s transfer campaign has pretty much sucked so far? Well sporting director Sergio Gasparin said their mercato depends on what happens with the Champions League qualifier. Pretty stupid, because if Samp do qualify for the Champions League group stage, that will occur on August 25th, allowing Gasparin only 6 days to to find some players before the mercato closes on the 31st.

-Gianluca Zambrotta is an optimist I guess. He says that Milan even without a few other signings is competitive already. I don’t know Zambrotta, when your entire midfield is over 30 it’s pretty hard to be competitive…

-Parma sporting director Pietro Leonardi has come out and said that Parma looking for a player with fantasista qualities. He said that Sebastian Giovinco, Hatem Ben Arfa, and Alessandro Diamanti all fit the bill and Parma is looking to get one of the three.

-Speaking of Giovinco, it was reported today that Bari has surpassed Parma and is now in pole position to get Giovinco. I don’t know how true that is, especially since Bari owner Vincenzo Matarrese came out today and said they will only sing Giovinco on loan and nothing else. They don’t want to pay money for him.

-Fiorentina will apparently close the deal with Liverpool to bring fullback Emiliano Insua to Florence before the end of the day. Let’s see if that happens.

-Eder, dubbed the “Kaka of Serie B”, was Serie B’s top goalscorer last season and is looking for a move to a bigger club. According to reports Lazio and Empoli have been discussing a deal for weeks and apparently it is very close to being done. Lotito has to spend those 18 million euro he got for Kolarov on something…

-Inter are looking to use the money received from the Balotelli sale (and maybe eventually Maicon’s) to bring in two of Bentiez’s pupils: Mascherano and Kuyt. While it is almost fairly certain that Mascherano will be joining the Nerazzurri this summer, the Kuyt deal will be a little more complicated, but could be made easier if Liverpool wind up singing Royston Drenthe.

-Roma really want West Ham and Switzerland winger Valon Behrami. They apparently want him on loan with an option to buy, but West Ham isn’t interested in that type of deal. So Roma may have to give the London club some players, and they might decide to hand over Brazilian goalkeeper Doni and young Italian striker Stefano Okaka, who spent the second part of last season in London on loan with Fulham. I wonder how the Roma fans will react to an ex-Laziale playing for them.

-Luca Cigarini was once touted as the new Pirlo, but hasn’t really lived up to the billing. Napoli spent a load of money on him last summer but once Mazzarri showed up he decided there was no room for Ciga in his starting 11. So Cigarini wants to move on, and Sevilla are rumored to be interested (where he would form an all-Italian central midfield pairing with Tiberio Guarente, and the two played together at Atalanta). Sevilla have supposedly put in an offer that is deemed too low for Napoli: 300,000 euro for the loan and then the option to buy for 6 million at the end of the season.

-Newly-promoted Brescia have done next to nothing on the transfer market, only signing goalkeeper Matteo Sereni so far. Manager Beppe Iachini announced to the press today that for Brescia to achieve salvation the squad needs some reinforcements. Brescia are looking at bringing in West Ham’s Alessandro Diamanti. That would be a great move, but I don’t know if Diamanti would accept a move to relegation zone team.

-Mauro Camoranesi has been linked with a move away from Juve since May. First it was thought he would go to Olympiakos, but the Greek club couldn’t finalize the deal. Now it seems newly-promoted La Liga side Hercules CF is interested in the Italo-Argentine, and they are willing to offer him two year deal worth 1.5 million euro a season.

-And finally, Nicolas Burdisso. The Argentinian defender desperately wants a permanent move to Roma, but the Giallorossi really don’t have that much money to spend. In addition, after Totti’s words to the press about Inter, they are not going to be the easiest to negotiate with. It’s almost a month until the start of the Serie A season, and Burdisso’s future is still unclear.

So I thought maybe after the World Cup, there might be some new soccer fans that fell in love with the game in these past few weeks and are looking for a league to follow. Now I know many would probably go and choose the English Premier League because it has the most visibility and is English-speaking or they might choose La Liga because of Real Madrid and Barcelona or the Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League (ok maybe not that one), but I decided to make a case for Serie A. Sure if you read everywhere it says Serie A is in a decline, and watching Italy in the World Cup was pretty embarrassing, but the league I have loved all my life has many things to offer. Let’s go through them:

1) Serie A clubs easily have the best kits-
Italian clubs always have the most unique range of kits. From the classic striped shirts of the big three, to the red and blue halved kits of Genoa and Cagliari, to the Parma kits with a big cross on it, to the unique “blucerchiato” kits of Sampdoria, to the purple of Fiorentina and the pink of Palermo. There are great kits all around the peninsula.

2) Serie A clubs have the craziest owners-
It’s true. The prerequisite for owning a team in Italy is that you have to be a complete nutcase. We have Silvio Berlusconi and his underage girlfriends, Claudio Lotito who always quotes latin sayings and bible passages, Maurizio Zamparini and Massimo Cellino who fire managers just for sneezing too loud, and Tommaso Ghirardi and his obvious love of food. And that’s only 5 out of 20.

3) This season, a coach will win his first Scudetto-
For the first time in history, all 20 Serie A coaches at the start of a season have never won the Scudetto. Somebody will win their first. Obviously the big team coaches like Benitez, Allegri, Ranieri, and Delneri have a better chance then let’s say Giampaolo or Ficcadenti. But somebody will win their first at the end of the season and you’ll have to watch to find out.

4) Serie A is always an even playing field-
Sure the usual clubs always dominate, but the midsize clubs like Palermo, Napoli, Sampdoria, Fiorentina, Genoa, etc always surprise and obtain surprising results. Also, the small teams are always competitive in Serie A. When you watch the EPL for example, you’ll see Chelsea or Manchester United put 7 goals past a team. In Serie A a small club would never let in 7 goals (unless Zeman is in charge).

5) Inter seem less evil-
Yes, Mourinho was a great coach and knew how to get the best out of his side. However, almost the whole Italian peninsula despised his arrogant personality and the way he dealt with the media. Calcio didn’t like Mourinho, and Mourinho didn’t like Calcio. He even said it himself. This made Inter seem like this evil empire that everyone hated and wanted to lose. But now with Benitez, it’s different. Benitez is the opposite of Mourinho. He’s very calm, humble, and easy going. He knows how to talk to the press and doesn’t have an arrogant personality. Inter will still be despised by many, but at least they don’t have Mourinho.

6) The best tactics and tacticians are in Serie A-
For those who love tactics, Serie A is the place to be. Italy has always produced the best managers, and that is exactly why 18 out of 20 coaches this season are Italian (Mihajlovic is pretty much Italian after spending his whole career in Italy). Sure you won’t always see the most exciting football, but you’ll see excellent tactically sound sides that know what to do on the pitch.

7) The Fantasista-
Easily my favorite player in all of football. The fantasista is the genius player that can create something out of nothing and change a game on an instant. He is the player worth the ticket price. Italy has always had fantasisti, from Serie A to Serie D, and they have produced some of the most technically gifted players in world football. While people say the modern game is killing the fantasista, they are still around in Italy, and it’s a joy to watch them on the pitch. Antonio Cassano of Sampdoria, Francesco Totti of Roma, Alessandro Del Piero of Juventus, and Antonio Di Natale of Udinese are just a couple of the players that are a joy to watch every week.

8) New starts for all the big clubs-
It will be interesting to see how all the big clubs perform this season, since all of them are starting a new cycle. Inter have just won the treble and have to adjust to a new manager in Rafa Benitez, Juventus are looking to completely rebuild with Gigi Delneri after last season’s nightmare, Roma look to pick up where they left off with Ranieri in his first preseason training, and Milan have appointed the young and promising Max Allegri to bring them to new heights. Not to mention post-Prandelli Fiorentina with Mihajlovic, Mazzarri’s first full year with Napoli, and Delio Rossi’s first full year with Palermo.

9) So major stars don’t play in our league. Big deal! We still got some good players.-
Ok so Serie A was once the place for all the world’s biggest stars to come play and now it definitely isn’t. So we don’t have Leo Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo or Erjon Bogdani. Oh wait, we have Erjon Bogdani. But there are still many very talented players in Serie A and even though they aren’t well known or make 230 million dollars a season they are still a joy to watch.

10) Italians do it better-
But that’s just common knowledge.

Do you have any of your own reasons to watch Serie A this season? Share them in the comments!

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Preseason training is underway and with the preparations for the coming season there are always the presentation of the kits by each team. I remember years ago when you had to wait until at least mid-August to see the kits, now you have brands like Nike and Adidas unveiling next season’s kits even months in advance. Not all the Serie A teams have unveiled their new kits so far, but many did, so let’s go ahead and see what these things look like.

Parma will have 4 kits this season and are still sponsored by Italian company Errea, but have only unveiled one that will only be used in pre-season friendlies and in the Coppa Italia. It’s a variation of the gialloblu striped number they had last season, but with a new design. Here’s the front and the back. The rest will be unveiled in August.

Inter are afraid they won’t be able to repeat last season’s treble performance so they have decided to design a home kit that will give the opposing team epileptic seizures while they play. Seriously, what was Nike thinking with this thing. I can’t stare at it for more than 5 seconds without my eyes hurting. I like the away kit, though. It’s very unique with the biscione on it. The goalkeepers get zebra stripes on their sleeves, and Luca Castellazzi gets to wear a strange sea green kit.

Roma has just renewed their deal with Kappa until 2017. Unfortunately, these Kappa kits are getting kind of boring now. They look like recycled designs with just updated materials. This year’s home kit is reminiscent of their 2000/2001 Scudetto winning shirt. The away is ok with the white and orange and the old wolf logo. I liked theall black third shirts from previous years, but Kappa decided to make this one different with the orange insert. I’m pretty sure the orange on that shirt glows in the dark.

Bari still are with Errea and they have put out some classic looking kits for the upcoming season. The home and away are the same design with inverted colors, but are very vintage looking with the collar. The green keeper kit is almost unchanged from last season but the navy blue third kit is a different design from the home and away. I like them.

Palermo have changed from Lotto to the ever-growing Legea for the upcoming season, but their kits have not been unveiled yet. However, a new Sky commercial featuring Miccoli may have gave away the home kit. Here is the front and back. This is the same design used by Legea for teams like Livorno and Ancona last season. You would think sponsoring a Europa League team they would have made more of an effort to be unique.

Catania have changed from Legea to fairly new Salerno based company Givova (who debuted in Serie A with Chievo last season). The home kit is the traditional blue and red stripes with a white insert at the top, and the back has no stripes at all. The away is a simple white design with red and blue inserts on the front. Nothing special for me.

Lazio continues their relationship with Puma. Looks like the Biancocelesti just got three different national team designs seen at the World Cup. The home kit is a light blue Italy jersey. The away kit is a brownish-green Uruguay jersey. And the third kit is a blue, white, and gold version of kits seen on the Ivory Coast. Puma need to get some new ideas.

Sampdoria have extended their relationship with Kappa for another season, and finally after so many years of basically having the same exact kits every season, Kappa finally have given Sampdoria a new look (probably because of the Champions League qualification). First, the home kit gets a white v-neck and white borders on the sleeves. The away kit gets a radical change, with the blucerchiato stripe being placed diagonally across the shirt. Samp had a kit like this in the 60’s. The third kit remains the same, except that it is now navy blue and not black. I love Samp’s new look.

Genoa and Asics decided to go simple this season: reuse the kits from last season. The home and away kits are practically unchanged, and they have unveiled a dark blue third kit that will only be used in friendlies. Pretty boring I must say.

Juventus and Nike have unveiled their new kits with an Italian tricolor theme. The home kit gets similar stripes as Inter, but they are easier on the eye. There are little Italian flags on the sleeves. The away kit is all white and gets more blurry stripes, this time the Italian tricolore. Apparently the Italian flag design is supposed to pay homage to the 14 million Juve fans all over Italy. The goalkeeper jersey gets the Italian flag treatment as well. It’s similar to this kit made years ago to celebrate Juve’s Scudetto win. I don’t like the use of the Italian flag on all the kits. If they won the Scudetto it would have been understandable, but they could have came up with something better. Also, with an all white away kit, what are Juve going to wear when they have to play black and white clubs like Cesena and Udinese?

Milan and Adidas have churned out some good kits for the upcoming season. There hasn’t been an official unveiling yet, but the kits were leaked from a photo shoot. The home kit has a 2 stripe design that resembles the 98/99 Scudetto kit. The away kit is the traditional all white kit. The third kit is all black with thin red pinstripes. I like them.

Chievo are still with Givova and their kits are the traditional yellow with blue sleeves. The away and third are white and a blue/yellow sleeve inverted shirt.

That’s it for Serie A teams so far, but here’s the sponsor situation on the rest of the teams:

Brescia will have Mass manufacturing their kits.

Bologna have signed a new deal with Bolognese company Macron.

Cagliari will use Macron for one more season.

Cesena have surprisingly been picked up by Adidas.

Fiorentina and Lotto will be together for one more year.

Lecce and Asics will still be together next season.

Napoli is with Macron until 2012.

Udinese have switched from Lotto to Legea.

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The World Cup final was played on Sunday and the global viewing audience for football’s greatest prize was in excess of 1 billion. A significant number of the world’s population from rich to poor across the globe tuned in as the Netherlands and Spain fought it out for the title of world champion.

I was one of those people but unlike most of the others, I have been left seriously disillusioned by football over the past few days. I’m specifically talking about Italian football and the ramifications of the tessera del tifoso. I have followed the concept of the tessera del tifoso for several months now and I have never liked the idea at any stage. Now that it has finally been introduced, I decided to ask a Rome-based Lazio fan a few questions regarding the draconian new measure being implemented and this allowed me to gain a greater understanding of the tessera. I’d like to thank Lucky Strike for his assistance; Laziofever readers may be familiar with his excellent posts.

For those who don’t follow the off pitch stuff as closely as what takes place on it, the Italian interior minister Maroni (of the Lega Nord party) has championed the introduction of the “tessera del tifoso”, an identity card for football fans. To purchase a season ticket, one must now also sign up for a tessera. To buy tickets to away games, a tessera is a required document. For those of us who travel to Italy, away games are no longer an option. Likewise, home games considered “at risk”, which usually have been games against the likes of Napoli, will also be off limits to those without a tessera.

How does one get a tessera? Well, each club has its own version. Lazio’s is called the “millenovecento”. It is a card on the Mastercard network, produced by PostePay, a division of Poste Italiane, the largest postal service operating in Italy, which is government run and floated on the stock market. In addition to being able to purchase match tickets to any game, the holder of a tessera will be eligible for certain discounts on official merchandise and even non-football related things such as banking. To apply for the card, you need three small passport sized photographs and to complete an application form. Once submitted, the police will review the application and within 1-2 weeks the card will be issued. After this, the tessera holder is free to purchase their season ticket. The card is valid for 5 years and costs 15 euro, although free to existing season ticket holders.

The effect it will have is largely hard to determine at this stage. Certainly, the Lazio ultras will not apply for the tessera. Nor will the Catania and Napoli (see pic above) ultras. They will more than likely be joined by most of the hardcore right across the peninsula. They see it is a provocation and a restriction on their own freedom and will simply protest against it by refusing to accept it. Currently, only the ultras of the Milanese clubs have accepted the tessera, a move which has attracted much disgust from fans right across Italy. Roma too, have managed to sell 15,000 tessere. I’m not sure if these have been bought by ultras though, or just casual fans.

It goes without saying that, among football fans, the tessera is an unpopular measure. Identity cards generally don’t gather a whole lot of support from people. Protests have been held and they had a significant effect, as the introduction of the tessera was delayed by six-months. Ultimately though, it will now be a required document and the ultras of Lazio have decided to leave the stadium. They have been followed by the fans of Catania. Over the coming weeks, we will be able to gather the reactions of the different sets of fans right across Italy. Certainly, in contrast, the fans of Inter and Roma have accepted the tessera. Other Italian fans, particularly the ultras, look down on this. To them, the tessera is a tool to restrict freedom and

Looking at the reactions of Lazio ultras in particular a bit closer, we see that things are not looking good for a vibrant Curva Nord. Banda Noantri, who have led the Curva since the Siena match last season will not even buy match tickets where allowed. They see the ideals of football as corrupted, as it is no longer the game of old. In other words, they feel that commercial interests combined with restrictive control over fans in an attempt to quash the ultras culture is ruining football. They have a strong case. The tessera is clearly being promoted by commercialism, as we can see by all the “benefits” of signing up for a tessera, while the big pay-TV companies have been controlling football for well over a decade now. It is no secret that the authorities have long harboured a desire to bring about an end to the ultras movement. The former Irriducibili leaders Toffolo and Paolo Arciveri (who were imprisoned for quite some time without a trial) believe that the fans should refuse the tessera but still buy match tickets at a greater expense and attend matches where possible.

The tessera does nothing to stop any potential violence. It prevents fans from purchasing tickets in the away sector of a ground, but it doesn’t prevent anyone travelling to another city with the intention of violent conflict. The vast majority of ultras aren’t violent anyway, and the tessera will hardly discourage those who want to go and look for trouble to do so. All that is likely, is a dramatic decrease in the attendance at matches. The authorities will hope for a drastic increase in the number of casual fans who attend games, as only that would vindicate their claims that the violent ultras intimidate them from going to the football.

If history is any indication, without Curva Nord, Lazio attendances will be well under 10,000 each week. At matches seen as unimportant, such as the meaningless European tie with Levski, a partially full Curva was the entire attendance. Similarly, when the curva protested against the Lotito management against Fiorentina, only about 5000 of the “ordinary” fans turned up to watch their side play a night game against high profile opponents. Many smaller provincial sides, particularly those playing in the lower leagues would barely have 100 fans at matches if it weren’t for their ultras: loyal, parochial and passionate about their hometown. To me, the ultras are the heart and soul of Italian football. It is this heart and soul that is being eradicated by the tessera, not the violent minority.

On behalf of the Italy Offside, I’d like to congratulate Ronaldinho on his pregnancy. He looks about 4 months in. Can’t wait to see him walking around the pitches of Serie A come August. Also, I’m extremely happy that the World Cup is over. Why? Because now we can completely focus on Serie A again! I’m in full Serie A mode now and can’t wait for this upcoming season to get started.

Various Serie A news from the day:

- Happy Birthday Antonio Cassano! Fantantonio turns 28 today. It sucks that he wasted 3 years of his career and is now 28 years old and has won nothing. (OK so technically he did win the 2006-2007 La Liga title) Speaking of Cassano, funny new commercial with his fat alter ego.

-Inter’s pre-season ritiro started today and Rafa Benitez had a press conference. He talked about Inter’s objectives for the coming season, the lack of air conditioning in the press conference room, and how he forgot how to drive on the right side of the road. He also said he learned Italian when he played for Real Madrid’s youth team in the Viareggio tournament many years ago.

-Benitez said he wants to get to know Mario Balotelli and see him in training before deciding whether he needs to be sold or not. Click here for pictures of Balotelli’s vacation.

-Last thing about Inter, we don’t really know the futures of Beppe Baresi and Lele Oriali. Baresi was Mourinho’s assistant the past two seasons, but with Benitez bringing along Mauricio Pellegrino to be his assistant, Baresi’s future is unknown. Apparently Marco Branca and Massimo Moratti have conflicting ideas. When Branca was asked about Baresi he said “he will coach one of the youth teams” and when Moratti was asked about Baresi he said “Baresi will remain the assistant”. Oriali on the other hand doesn’t want to be the intermediary between the team and the front office so he will most likely close his rapport with his former club. Rumors are he may join the Manchester City staff with old friend Roberto Mancini.

-Parma showed up to pre-season ritiro today with 32 players. They better be careful that’s almost as many as Lazio! Sporting director Pietro Leonardi has some work to do and sell some players. 32 players is way too much for a club only playing in one competition next season (two if you count the Coppa Italia).

-Looks like Cagliari owner Massimo Cellino was watching Uruguay’s games during the World Cup. He’s interested in signing Penarol midfielder Egidio Arevalo, who had a good tournament.

-Lecce operated a trade today, getting 22 year old fullback Davide Brivio from Vicenza and sending French striker Alain Baclet in the other direction. Brivio is an Italy U-21 international.

-Genoa and Lazio are still fighting it out for Ghana and Portsmouth midfielder Kevin Prince-Boateng. Genoa is said to be the closer of the two clubs, as they have come to terms with the player but not with Portsmouth. On the other hand Lazio have come to terms with Portsmouth but not with the player.

-Lazio renewed Christian Brocchi’s contract today until 2012. The former Milan midfielder has been a stalwart in Lazio’s midfield since his arrival and got a much earned renewal.

-And one last Lazio note. Apparently midfielder Christian Manfredini got on the bus today to go to pre-season training and was told to get off! Manfredini obliged and it looks like he will be sold somewhere in the coming days. Isn’t that such a nice way to tell a player he doesn’t have a future at the club?

-A few days ago Fiorentina sporting director Pantaleo Corvino said he has signed a player with a last name ending in the letter C. That player is Celtic and Poland goalkeeper Artur Boruc, who didn’t leave with Celtic on their summer tour and was made an official Fiorentina player today (pending a medical). Boruc is said to have signed for close to 3 million euro and this raises the question whether they will be keeping Sebastien Frey or selling him to make some extra cash.

-New Chievo boss Stefano Pioli held a press conference today and said Chievo’s objective next season will be to play “beautiful calcio”. Let’s hope he’s telling the truth, because Chievo haven’t even been remotely interesting to watch since their first miracle season with Delneri back in 2001/2002.

-Palermo, after signing Polish international defender Kamil Glik, have signed another defender, Milan youth product Matteo Darmian. They have acquired him in a co-ownership deal and Darmian, last season at Padova on loan, will get his first taste of Serie A. This deal was made official today but was kind of official yesterday when Palermo listed him as one of the players departing for Palermo’s pre-season training camp. Oops.

-Simone Padoin, who I consider one of the most underrated players in Italy, was being followed by many clubs after Atalanta’s relegation but Padoin put a stop to those rumors today saying he is loyal to Bergamo and will stay with the Orobici to help them return to Serie A immediately.

-Number of moves Napoli has made on the transfer market so far: 0.

-Sampdoria is preparing for their Champions League filled season and they have announced they will make 3 more signings: a fullback, a winger, and a backup goalkeeper.

-There were rumors that Milan wanted the services of Genoa’s Greek international defender Sokratis Papa-how ever you spell it-opoulos. Today Milan director Ariedo Braida said that was all talk and won’t happen. Basically he’s saying: STOP BOTHERING US WE HAVE NO MONEY.

-Palermo want Liverpool’s Brazilian midfielder Lucas Pezzini and admitted they have made an official offer. Too bad Pezzini won’t be on the same team as Pazzini, that would have confused so many announcers.

-Kudos to Bologna’s new president Sergio Porcedda, who is already making moves to bring in reinforcements. He said that they will a top striker before the summer ends and already has deals in place to bring in defender Andrea Esposito and goalkeeper Cristiano Lupatelli.

-Everyday Bari manager Giampiero Ventura says the same thing to the press: “I would like Andrea Ranocchia back for the coming season. I also would like Giovinco, he would explode here.” I’ve seen this reported every day for at least the past 4 days. Let’s see how long it goes.

And finally, all over you see many “World Cup best XI’s”. Well, I’ll be different and post my “World Cup Worst XI”:

Buffon (Marchetti), Zambrotta-Cannavaro-Chiellini-Criscito, De Rossi-Montolivo, Pepe-Marchisio-Iaquinta, Gilardino.

BEST XI OF FOLLOWING THE ITALY OFFSIDE EVERY DAY:
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