This is unusual.

For the first time in many years, there is not a single Serie A team in the semi-finals in either of the two European trophies, and it has hurt the Italian public and football fans alike, as they watch the continued general demise of their own top division.

Juventus appear to be the only stand-out team that Italy has, and they have been through hell and back to get to where they are now.

Serie A was always a magnet to players from all over. In every decade from the 1950s onwards, the pull of the great names of Juventus, AC Milan, Inter and Roma lured players of all nationalities to one of the most interesting leagues in Europe.

Well, that's how it used to be, and whilst it's accepted that players still migrate towards Italy, the league is not as attractive as it once was, and that is only one reason why Italian clubs are now struggling.

In the UEFA coefficients rankings, Italy remain fourth behind third placed England, and it wasn't so long ago that we were looking over our shoulder thinking that we'd lose our fourth spot to Italy.

As it stands, Italy have no one to represent their clubs in the semi-finals, while England have two teams - Manchester City and Liverpool.

So where has it all gone wrong?

You could say that it is a one season blip. You could say that after Calciopoli or football scandal in 2006, that the rottenness within the Italian game was exposed and then the suffering began.

Juventus, AC Milan, Fiorentina, among others, were all implicated and were accused of rigging games by selecting favourable referees. Nothing particularly unusual you may think in Italy, but the corruption was widespread and leading figures within the game were also a part of the problem.

It meant that clubs were deducted points and relegated, and this had a knock-on impact elsewhere. The game in Italy was not the place for major sponsors. This meant there was no money, so suddenly Serie A teams couldn't compete with the cash on offer in Spain and England.

If you can't compete, then you have to turn to the youth structure, but that was poor. In recent years, the clubs have had to develop their own products and play them, resulting in an extremely good U-21 side that will, in time, feed into the senior squad. However, Italian teams are a way behind for now.

Certainly, the country's own poor economy has played a major role in all of this. But beyond this, individual clubs' failure to impress on the European stage has generated neither revenue nor prestige, and the result is that the world's best players generally overlook Italy, instead preferring the Premier League or La Liga. And now it's interesting to note that it's the Bundesliga's time to shine - the very league that took that Champions League spot from Serie A only a few years ago.

Italian clubs do not make a lot of money on ticket sales, as most of the grounds are council owned and they have to find other means by which to raise the money that their European counterparts take for granted. In reality, it's hard for a club like AC Milan - their matchday revenue dropped by 6% in the 2014/15 season. According to the Deloitte Football Money League, the €24.9m that they earned through matchday revenue accounted for just 10% of their overall income. The authors concluded that commercial revenue could prove critical to Milan’s future, with neither broadcast nor matchday sources likely to improve significantly in the short term.

Potential matchday profits have also been hindered by the high rents paid to the local councils and the lack of a modern infrastructure to allow revenue to be generated through corporate channels. Without owning their stadiums, clubs also lack assets, making the type of foreign investment other European leagues have enjoyed far less likely.

Juventus have set the standard for the other Serie A clubs with the building of the Juventus Stadium on the site of the Stadio Delle Alpi in 2011. Roma are also building a 52,000 seat arena, and with only two other clubs owning their own stadia in Serie A - Sassuolo’s Mapei Stadium and Udinese’s Stadio Friuli - it is rare for a club to own its own ground.

There is a long way to go for clubs in Italy to get their grounds on par with the European elite, and Italian bureaucracy can prove a stumbling block on the way to progress. If you compare the Rossoneri’s €24.9m matchday income to that of fellow Emirates sponsored club Arsenal’s €119.8m per season, you can clearly see the gulf between the two. It is worth noting, however, that season tickets cost between £1,000 and £2,000 at the Emirates stadium – a pricing structure that would not be viable in Italy.

Despite this, if Italian clubs can continue to improve and even own their stadiums, freeing themselves from the oppressive cost of council stadium ownership, the league will begin to attract further investment.

A return to European dominance of the late 1980s and 1990s could be on the cards.

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