Chapter I Introduction
1 Chapter I Introduction Background Football is the most popular sport in the world, with 240 million participants worldwide (FIFA, 2007). Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has 208 members, outnumbering United Nations (UN) or International Olympic Committee (IOC). The continued high level of public and commercial interest is reflected by another year of strong growth. The combined revenue of out top 20 clubs was €3.9 billion in 2007/08. More than three times the level in the first edition covering of Deloitte football money league 1996/97, and a € 220 million (6%)increase on the previous year (Deloitte, 2009). The Italian football professional league, Serie A, is one of the most important football leagues in the world. It includes many well-known clubs participating in European football club tournaments such as AC Milan, Juventus, Internazionale, etc. Also, the Italian clubs have won the most trophies among the other European football clubs (UEFA, 2007). Many great players had played in Serie A, for example, Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima, Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, Zinedine Yazid Zidane, and many others. The development of modern football in Italy has been taking place for more than one hundred years. The Italian 2 national team won champions for 4 times in world cup series, only less one time to Brazil. Regarding to the overall development of the sport, there are 4,363,000 participants in 2005 in Italy (CONI, 2005). In addition, football has been and still is a very popular pastime in this country, with more than 44 million Italians interested in the games, 31 million who support a particular team, 8 million who regularly watch matches at stadiums, 20 million who read about football in newspapers and 25 million who follow television and radio broadcasts.
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