10 Things Serie A Teaches Us About Life in Italy

Ever since I moved to Milan for my studies, I have been one of the biggest Calcio fans around. I was always fascinated by Serie A as a young boy growing up, when Italy claimed to have the best league in European football.

Legends such as Gabriel Batistuta, Alessandro Del Piero and Francesco Totti attracted me to tune in each Sunday. Ever since then, I was inspired to learn Italian and eventually visit the country to experience it for real.

After experiencing six wonderful months in the country's football capital and attending both Milan and Inter matches at the San Siro every week, I began to understand Italy's game and the place it holds in Italian society. Here I will attempt to make comparisons between the sport and the way of life on the peninsula, through a combination of my own experiences and traditional stereotypes.

Managers Are Vulnerable to Getting Sacked Due to Impatience

Serie A is one of the toughest leagues in the sport for managers due to the eagerness of the clubs' owners to dispose of their managers should the results not be satisfactory. From my experiences I found that Italian society had a tendency to be quite impatient.

The league has beaten a record this year for the amount of managerial changes. So far this season, there have been 17 managers forced out of their jobs. All of them were sacked except Cesena's Daniele Arrigoni, who left by mutual consent.

In Italy, a poor run normally constitutes three or four matches without victory, and anything more is openly recognised as a crisis.

Italians tend not to have a great deal of patience, as Bruno Bozzetto beautifully demonstrates with this superb cartoon. An example of this in everyday life in Italy is their reluctance to queue. Often enough, Italians will ignore those waiting before them and force their way to the front.

Italian presidents such as Genoa's Enrico Preziosi see the front of the queue as their desired success, realistic or not. There is a tendency to avoid the rebuilding process by regularly swapping managers—sometimes the same ones more than once. 

Lack of Faith in the Team and the State

Italian football fans are notorious for being the 12th man when they want to be, but they are also their own team's enemy when things go wrong.

It is common in Italian football matches to see the home fans whistle their own players if they are playing poorly or losing. This proved to me that they seem to have less faith in their teams than most other countries.

In Italian society, Italians often vent their frustration and display a pessimistic attitude on the state of their economy and the direction that their prime minister, currently Mario Monti, is taking.

The Athletics Track and Its Symbol

It is a tradition in Italy for football clubs to use stadiums that include athletics tracks. This is predominantly because the majority of Italian football clubs do not own their own stadium and therefore rent them from the city's council.

The athletics track can symbolise an aspect of Italian life. Fans for a football club would represent the general public, and the athletics track can represent the divide between themselves and the people that really matter, the players or politicians.

Pride

Italian football fans are passionate and outwardly display this during matches by creating flags in the colours of their club in order to support their team and intimidate the opposition.

One will find that the pride exhibited by Italian football fans is also true of Italians in general. There is extreme pride for the specific region or city that Italians come from.

Italian football undoubtedly displays aspects of nationalism, too. Certain clubs affiliate themselves with various political ideologies, such as Lazio, who have contingents of their support that display their support for fascism.

Most Clubs Garner Local Support Like Political Parties

Italian football fans tend to support their local club to an extent. Other countries, such as England and Spain, have nationwide support for a couple of clubs, which is not quite so prevalent in Italy.

This trend with football clubs is replicated with Italian political parties and the tendency to have many local parties rather than a couple of large national parties. Because of this, recent Italian governments tend to be formed by coalitions.

The Exception Is Juventus

Juventus are the exception to the previous slide as they generate nationwide support, especially from the south. This is due to the club being owned by the automobile manufacturer FIAT.

FIAT were integral to the widespread migration of Italians from the south to the north during the 1950s and 1960s. Juventus and therefore Italian football has become synonymous with the Italian economic miracle.

Individuality: Formations and Pasta

Tactics are fundamental to Italian football, with Italian managers widely considered the best in the world. With various interpretations of traditional formations present each week in Serie A, there is a comparison to be made within Italian society.

Pasta is an integral part of Italian cuisine, but just like formations, each region or team has their own interpretation.

Napoli have pioneered the recent surge in popularity of the three centre-back formation. A closer look will show that many Italian teams do not copy this formation exactly but adjust it in order to demonstrate their own interpretation.

The tactical variation seen in Serie A, unlike other leagues whose teams all share similar styles, demonstrates the individuality that is seen in Italian society in general.

Elegance and Beauty, Despite Age

Italian football's players and managers demonstrate a certain vanity. The importance of beauty and appearance on the pitch is also relevant off of it, too. Italian society holds beauty very highly, which can be seen with many of Italian football's most famous names.

For example, Antonio Conte lost his hair towards the end of his career, but recently undertook a hair transplant, a la Wayne Rooney, to solve the problem.

Italian footballers are also seen as the epitome of beauty and dominate the advertising campaigns of various brands throughout Italian society, such as this underwear advertised by the Italian national team.

The Referee Is the Scapegoat

The referee is never more famous than in the Italian game, with Italians showing great suspicion whenever their team loses. It is common to see the referee being held responsible for a team's failure.

Italian society, from my experiences, tends to enjoy placing the blame on a particular individual in a similar fashion. An example of a referee in Italian society would be a politician, as Italians have often suggested that the man in black holds the power to decide the outcome of games.

Corruption

Corruption is unfortunately prevalent in Italian football, and undoubtedly it has been widespread within Italian society as well.

In 2006, Italian football was brought to its knees by the calciopoli scandal, and in recent weeks we have learned about another scandal that could be set to rock Serie A in a similar fashion. Atalanta player Andrea Masiello has been arrested over allegations that he took a bribe to score an own goal while he was playing with Bari last season.

Corruption has also existed for decades in the highest circles of Italian society, with former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti proven to have enjoyed relationships with members of the Mafia in order to enhance his career.

Jack Alexandros is a football analyst for Football Radar covering Serie A. You can follow him on Twitter @jackalexandros and @FRcalcioJack.