Fun, glamour and chaos: how Gazzetta Football Italia won our hearts

“Welcome to Serie A – the greatest league in the world.” With those words the late Kenneth Wolstenholme kicked off a new era as Serie A became an institution in living rooms up and down the United Kingdom.

A few weeks earlier coverage of the newly-created, and much-hyped, Premier League had launched on Sky and was supposed to take centre stage. But back then, Serie A dominated every other division and Channel 4 had captured coverage of it for next to nothing. It was the only live football that was free to air in the UK and viewers loved it.

Italian football was meant to be slow and boring but in the first game broadcast by Channel 4 – the 30-year anniversary of which is on Tuesday – Sampdoria and Lazio shared six goals in Genoa. And that was just the start of the fun.

In the summer of 1993 I was fortunate enough to join Chrysalis Television and for so many of us working for the production company back then, Gazzetta Football Italia was the jewel in their crown. It perfected the mix of football and entertainment. Viewers loved James Richardson’s brilliantly scripted links and news stories, while at the same time had a real taste of the passion and colour of calcio.

While there was magic on the field, there were also more than a few chaotic incidents off it. In those pre-internet days, getting critical information such as team line-ups was a battle in itself. On some occasions we even had to phone the stadium.

FootballItalia was also the first of its kind not to have commentators at the stadium. The beauty of it was that nobody knew. However, Peter Brackley’s cover as an “off tube” commentator was nearly blown one week when somebody switched our feed of Milan versus Parma to Fiorentina against Bari. As ever Brackers