Italian football’s seemingly perennial battle with match-fixing has dominated the headlines at the end of this latest Serie A season. Given Juventus’ own recent history in association with such scandals, at this juncture the irony surrounding their resurgence as the newly-crowned league champions will not have been lost on many.
However, amid the latest lurid shenanigans, where over 50 players and no fewer than 22 clubs have been charged over match-fixing allegations, the emergence of Udinese as a major player in Italian football is a rather more positive feature on which to concentrate.
Compared with the likes of the Milan clubs and the aforementioned Juventus, Udinese have generally assumed a lowly status down the years, and, in all probability, few of us will know much about the club. However, the securing of a Champions League place for the second successive season is likely to change all that, for the foreseeable future at least.
Predictably, last season’s (2010/11) fourth place finish in Serie A was regarded by some as a one-off. The assumption, of course, was that normal service would be resumed this past season, and Udinese would take their rightful place among the lower orders of the league once more.
However, Udinese’s third place finish this term – and with it entry into the Champions League once again - has proved that the club’s rise to prominence deserves recognition. That they finished no fewer than twenty points behind champions Juve should not detract from the fact that other so-called luminaries including Lazio, Napoli and Inter Milan were left trailing in their wake.
Of course, as a rule, financial spending power is normally reflected in any club’s league standing. On that basis, then, Udinese’s achievements become all the more remarkable when consideration is given to their relatively modest budget. In fact, the club’s wage bill is the sixth lowest in Serie A, and a mere eighth that of AC Milan’s.
So what do we know of Serie A’s latest upstarts? Udinese Calcio are based in a medium-sized town called Udine in the north-east of Italy, an area more renowned for its association with Italian military history than the beautiful game. Interestingly, the Zebrette (‘Little Zebras’) are the second oldest club in the league (behind Genoa), although their history isn’t exactly littered with success.
Apart from season 1954/55, when they narrowly lost out on the Serie A league title to AC Milan, they have tended to avoid becoming accustomed with silverware, preferring to opt for an endless see-saw of league-swapping. The 1960s and 70s were particularly grim times, with the club ensconced within the lower reaches of Serie C for the most part.
However, the 1980s brought moderately improved fortune, and the club began to attract attention due to the arrival of well-known foreign stars (admittedly in the twilight of their career) such as the Brazilian Zico. However, it wasn’t until 1997, when the club qualified for the Uefa Cup, that Udinese’s fortunes began to take a serious upturn.
German international Oliver Bierhoff’s 28 league goals carried the club to a third place finish in Serie A that season, although it was a further eight years before a place in the Champions League was secured for the first time. Since then, the prolific goalscoring exploits of Antonio Di Natale have propelled the club into the higher echelons of the league.
The striker’s 28 goals in 2010/11 saw him achieve the distinction of becoming the first back-to-back ‘capocannoniere’ (top league scorer) since Lazio’s Giuseppe Signori in 1993 and ‘94. As a result, the club has maintained its progress despite the sale of star Chilean striker Alexis Sánchez to Barcelona last summer.
Udinese lost out to Arsenal in the Champions League qualifiers last season, although they subsequently enjoyed a decent run in the Europa League. Celtic fans will recall their clashes with the Italian club, and in particular the 1-1 draw in Udine, a result which manager Neil Lennon – in emphasising the quality of the hoops’ opponents – claimed gave his players the confidence to push on towards the SPL league title.
Their recent record suggests that Udinese are set to enjoy a period of success in the upper reaches of Italian football for the time being at least. In these times where the top spots in the European league and cup competitions are predictably the sole preserve of those with serious financial muscle, the remarkable and refreshing exploits of an ambitious club such as Udinese, continuing to punch above its weight, ought to be celebrated.
Udinese may not quite be dining at European football’s top table just yet, but they appear intent on enquiring about the possibility of a reservation in the not too distant future.