In Praise of Free Football on TV

But don’t cry, kid, there’s a beautiful alternative waiting for you over on Channel 4. It’s a place where espresso-fuelled footballers draped in Diadora and Lotto jink and swagger on the sun-baked fields of a far-away land. You’re about to discover Football Italia, and it’s everything you need.

For a generation suddenly starved of free football on TV, Channel 4’s Gazzetta Football Italia was the answer. The vibes have echoed through the decades with such resonance that thousands of people still maintain a long-distance relationship with the Italian football club they adopted in the ‘90s. If you had the misfortune of being born in a world post-Gazzetta, there’s a YouTube channel dedicated to it. Fill your Diadora Brasils.

Much has been written about the show in recent years, so I won’t retread familiar ground. James Richardson is a national treasure, that’s the last I’ll say. The reason people are still talking about it is because it was free to watch in an era when there wasn’t much to watch. Therefore, it became a cultural touchstone for an entire generation. But in 2008, we let free Italian football slip through our fingers like a bribed goalkeeper and it was gobbled up by BT Sports.