MILAN, Oct 25 (Reuters) -- Fans are turning their backs on Italy's Serie A, despite the country's World Cup success, with average attendances this season slumping to 19,511, the ninth successive season that crowds have fallen.
A study by
Gazzetta dello Sport showed that average
attendances have fallen by 11,650 from the 1997-98 season when
the figure was 31,161.
This season's drop, which comes after Italy beat France to
win the World Cup in July, can be partially explained by the
demotion of the country's most successful club Juventus to the
second division Serie B.
Juve were stripped of their last two league titles and
relegated to Serie B by a sports tribunal looking into
allegations of match-fixing.
The Turin club's first ever season in the second tier has
resulted in a large rise in attendances in Serie B - crowds are
up 20.3 per cent on last season's figures.
While Juve's relegation can explain some of this season's
drop in attendances in Serie A, Gazzetta said the negative trend
over the past decade was due to other factors including crowd
violence, expensive ticket prices, the impact of the
match-fixing scandal, saturated television coverage and poor
quality stadiums.
The newspaper said that there was no sign of a similar fall
in crowds in other major European leagues with attendances
actually increasing in Spain and England.
The fall in top flight crowds may also reflect the change in
status of a number of clubs - big city teams Genoa, Napoli,
Verona and Bologna are all in Serie B while the top flight has
several teams with a much smaller fan base.
Empoli had an average crowds of 6,725 last season, Chievo
Verona 8,589 and Siena 9,874.
