Italian soccer crisis worsens with Bologna and Fiorentina losses in Europe

ROME (AP) — First it was the Champions League. Then came the national team. Now it’s the Europa League and Conference League. Italy’s soccer crisis is worsening with Bologna and Fiorentina risking European exits. Bologna’s 3-1 loss to Aston Villa in the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinals and Fiorentina’s 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace in the same stage of the Conference League make it likely that Italy won’t have any clubs in a European semifinal for the first time in seven years. The latest losses came after Atalanta — the only Italian club to reach the Champions League round of 16 — was eliminated by a whopping 10-2 on aggregate by Bayern Munich last month. Inter Milan — which was humiliated in a 5-0 rout by Paris Saint-Germain in last season’s final — and Juventus were eliminated by Bodø/Glimt and Galatasaray, respectively, in the Champions League playoffs. Defending Serie A champion Napoli finished 30th in the 36-team league phase and didn’t even make the playoffs. The only goal scored by an Italian club on Thursday came from Bologna’s English winger Jonathan Rowe. “At this level experience counts and Aston Villa probably had more, as they made fewer mistakes and made the most of ours,” said Bologna winger Federico Bernardeschi. Ollie Watkins completed a brace for Villa in stoppage time. “The third goal changes everything for the return leg,” Bernardeschi said. “We can’t concede in the last minute of added time and that should teach us a lot. We need to grow.” The difference was even greater between Palace and Fiorentina even though their positions in the Premier League (14th) and Serie A (15th) are similar.

No World Cup

The latest defeats came 10 days after Italy’s penalty shootout loss to Bosnia-Herzegovina meant that the four-time champion will miss a third consecutive World Cup. Italian soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina and coach Gennaro Gattuso resigned after Italy’s loss. The only Italian coaches who will take part in the World Cup in North America are in charge of Brazil (Carlo Ancelotti), Turkey (Vincenzo Montella) and Uzbekistan (Fabio Cannavaro).

Serie A is old and slow

Gravina is staying on in a caretaker role until elections in June and this week released a detailed report on the system-wide failure of Italian soccer. Among Gravina’s findings are that with an average age of 27, Serie A has older players than the leagues in England, Germany, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Norway and Belgium. The average ball speed of 7.6 meters per second in Serie A is drastically lower than the 9.2 average of Europe’s most important leagues and even further behind the 10.4 in the Champions League. Italy’s problems include the lower divisions, with nearly 200 clubs excluded from their leagues for financial difficulties since 1986-87 and a total of 519 penalty points inflicted in the last 13 years. Italy is also not among the top 10 European nations in terms of building or modernizing stadiums over the past two decades. “For the good of Italian soccer, it’s more than evident that the only way to intervene is to do it in a radical manner … with fundamental support from the government,” Gravina said. “No single person can create a complete reconstruction.” \\\_ AP soccer: