When you mention the name James Richardson to football fans of a certain age, one thing will come to mind.
The journalist and broadcaster might now be the face of BT Sport’s Champions League and European football coverage, but those who grew up in the 90s will always associate his name with Football Italia and its sister show Gazzetta.
JOE caught up with Richardson to reminisce about a simpler time, and one which many fans still hold dear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAo7TrQ0aXw
“It’s funny,” he says, “I think back to shows that I liked when I was a kid and a lot of those have a hazy nostalgic glow – I think a lot of that is behind why people like that whole Gazetta thing.
“Everyone kind of grew up with this feeling about it being a great show, but if you put out those original episodes now I don’t know if people would consider it a little creaky and old-fashioned.
He admits that, while it might be tough to get the same outcome from a similar show today, a few elements came together in the 90s which made it a perfect time to launch a highlights show both set and filmed on the continent, and chief among them was Paul Gascoigne.
The England midfielder had starred at the 1990 World Cup, and at the time Football Italia began he was on the books of Lazio having missed more than a year’s football due to an injury he picked up with Tottenham.
“He was competing against the world’s best, and Italy at that time was no question the home of the greatest in the world, and he represented our national pride in a sense there was a question of ‘can he succeed at that level?'” Richardson adds.
“Plus it was in a country that had just held a World Cup where England had done well for the first time in ages, that everybody had a bit of a thing about. So we’re now in the same country, at the same stadiums, watching a player who was the star of that World Cup but also Des Walker and David Platt – that’s three members of the England team, so it’s almost like this was your surrogate Italia 90 for the next few years until the next World Cup comes along. Plus it was Italy, which is just a beautiful country to look at.”
But there was one extra factor which is so distant that many of today’s football fans have known no different: the year before Richardson’s show came to Channel 4, top-flight English football was still on terrestrial television in the UK.
While many people have differing opinions about the role of Sky in shaping the modern football landscape, there is no doubt in Richardson’s mind that it helped Football Italia and Gazzetta get off the ground.
“Sky did us this massive favour of taking the Premier League from ITV and you couldn’t watch football on terrestrial TV,” he says.
“I don’t know how many satellite dishes there were in 1992, maybe a million tops, so for most people the only football they could watch was this really good league going on in Italy, which just happened to include this incredibly good English footballer who happened to have not played for 18 months and had an incredible back-story. I think it was the perfect storm.”
Richardson admits that nowadays – with the breadth of coverage of European football (something which BT Sport have played a significant part in) – replicating Gazzetta Football Italia with the same success would be difficult, but not impossible.
“If you were to do an hour’s highlights show of Italian football that was based in Italy, I think it being based in Italy would get a lot of people watching. English people love Italy, as much as Italian people love England.”
BT Sport is the new home of European football, with all UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League matches exclusively live. Visit btsport.com/europe
