Milan's prolonged struggles are hurting Italian football

Serie A would be a stronger league if the rossoneri could get back to winning ways.

One of Italy's traditional powers and the side that dominated Serie A in the 90's is decidedly less than dominant now. AC Milan won Serie A in 2011, but last season failed to qualify for any European competitions for the first time in over a decade. Their 8th place finish was Milan's worst since 1998, and it's been a long, long time since they finished as low as their current 12th place standing.

Fans of other Italian clubs delight and revel in watching the rossoneri slip, again and again - it's always fun to watch giants fall and struggle to be relevant, after all. But there's a harsh reality to Milan's foibles that few like to acknowledge: Italian football would be better off if Milan were actually good.

It's an uncomfortable truth, to be sure. Nobody other than Milan fans particularly like them, but they're arguably the most popular Italian team outside of the country. That popularity brings a lot of attention to the league, and attention means eyeballs on television broadcasts. The more people watching Serie A on TV, the more money Serie A clubs get in TV rights.

But with AC Milan doing poorly, and Inter struggling right along with them, that international interest dries up pretty quick, especially in the United States, which might be the fastest-growing market of the sport in the world. Roma are trying to make headway there and Juventus has some bastions of popularity in Europe, but they're not nearly as popular around the world as the two sides from Milan.

While that might seem relatively unimportant with the sport as a whole gaining popularity worldwide, it has a major effect with Serie A's ability to gain attention. When the two most popular clubs are failing to record wins, people don't want to watch them. If people don't watch them, networks stop wanting to make showing Milan and Inter a priority, as well as Serie A as a whole. That means that England gets yet another huge bump to their broadcasting revenues instead of Italy, and Serie A keeps falling behind the other major leagues in terms of its ability to compete financially.

We've too long been witnessing Serie A fall away from the top leagues in terms of relevance. Ever since José Mourinho won the Champions League with Inter in 2010, Italian clubs have barely been competitive in Europe's top competition. A big part of that decline has been the rapid falloff of Milan, who have won the league just once and haven't had notable impact in the Champions League in several years. Juventus, on course for a fourth-straight title, are trying to pick up the slack, yet they too have struggled to make a splash in the top tournament.

Lots of activity during the winter transfer window has done little to improve on Milan's tepid performances, and it looks as though they're doomed to be mired in mediocrity once more. The improvements may come next season, but with the directors still looking clueless as to how to improve the club (free transfers and big wages paid to overrated players, coached by former stars pushed too quickly into management, doesn't seem to be a wise course of action) we could be looking at a sustained downturn for the side.

Milan are doing their best to divert attention away from their recent poor performances by attempting to create controversy. After Saturday's 3-1 loss to Juventus, director Adriano Galliani announced that the hosts were controlling television images, and were purposely not showing a replay of a possible offside goal from Carlos Tevez. The "parallel lines" incident brought no sympathy from neutrals, instead drawing yet more mocking of the beleaguered club. Of course, it helped that Milan's loss so thoroughly revealed the gap in quality between their squad and the league leaders.

It's easy to point and laugh at Milan's flailing efforts to pull themselves out of the fire they've put themselves in, but the fact is the league as a whole would be financially healthier and better off competitively, both domestically and playing abroad. Sure, some clubs aiming for Europe might find themselves further down the table, but in the long term, Serie A would have a lot more to be fighting for.

from SBNation.com - All Posts http://ift.tt/1z3PC9z