AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN ITALY American Football in Italy

AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN ITALY

American Football in Italy its history and further development �History of Football in Italy �Football �Costs Today and diffusion plan

History of Football in Italy �Diffusion �Golden in Italy Age and decline �Champions and Palmares Champions per region

Diffusion in Italy American Football docked in Italy together with the American troops during Italian Liberation from the German army. The first match was disputed on 1944 between the teams of two American military basis. The first Italian championship was held in 1981, and the Italian Federation of American Football blossomed, until 2003, when, due to legal issues, it got expelled from CONI, the Olympic committee. Football has survived until today, even though it is still considered an amateur sport.

Golden Age and decline The ‘ 80 s are considered the golden age of Football in Italy for 3 main reasons: • It was officially part of the Olympic Committee • It was considered a professional sport • It had an only league with numerous and competitive teams The Golden Age lasted for almost 20 years, when the FIAF (Italian Federation of American Football) was disbanded in smaller federations, spreading the teams all over the peninsula.

Football today Today Football in Italy is an amateur sport, athletes don’t get payed to play because private society, without being supported by CONI or sponsors, cannot afford relevant expenses. There are 2 different leagues, but only one is officially considered “National” due to the team ratio of 80: 4 between them. Name Number of players American Players Number of teams IFL 11 Max 3 8 LENAF 11 no 24 CIF 9 9 no 40 The most important league is divided in 3 championships:

Costs and diffusion Plan To better estimate the magnitude of sacrifices every team should make to compete in a league, I took as a reference the S. S. Lazio Marines, a team from Rome that take part in the IFL, CIF 9, Women Football, Flag Football and Youth teams. S. S. Lazio Marines Every year, the president of the team is in loss to pay all the costs, therefore, I made various hypothesis imagining two different scenarios: an important sponsor with same costs; and more athletes paying less. Of course, the team would benefit more from a sponsor than from an increase of athletes, however, I have shown that if Football were known more, the teams would not be in loss. To be more concrete I shall make a comparison between an Italian team and an important American franchise as the Dallas Cowboys.