Football Italia: How Calciopoli scandal brought curtain down on Serie A’s Golden Age — which saw world record transfers, colourful kits, incredible depth of talent and dominated Europe in 1990s

THERE was a time when UK viewers did not have the best talent on their doorsteps — or even at their fingertips.

Before the days of the Internet, the only way to see football's biggest superstars was in the Serie A match selected by Channel 4 on a Sunday afternoon.

In the early years of the Premier League's inception, Italy was a hotbed for talent, with the world's biggest superstars flocking over.

As well as the best talent, Italian sides also had best kits: from Fiorentina's violet, to Parma's famous blue and yellow, Roma's yellow and red and Sampdoria's blues shirts with white, red and black horizontal stripes.

This year makes it 25 years since Football Italia's inception, and BT Sport are releasing "Golazzo" — a reference to the show's iconic opening — a film which pays tribute to Italy's Golden Age.

So, we're going to take a look back at when Serie A ruled the world, and how it all came crashing down.

In 1992, English football underwent a momentous transformation with the birth of the Premier League.

But, at the same time, a Three Lions icon was departing these shores, as Paul Gascoigne completed a move to Lazio — and from there, Football Italia was born.

Channel 4's decision to buy the rights to live Serie A games was inspired by Gazza's transfer to the Roman giants.

And it immediately bore fruit with Sampdoria and Lazio — who were without the injured England man — playing out an epic 3-3 draw in the first televised match.

Presented by the charismatic James Richardson, it ran for ten years until 2002, showcasing some of the biggest names in the game .

What made it so appealing to viewers in the UK was that the lack of accessibility almost made it seem like fantasy players — Football Italia was the only gateway to see these icons that were never going to come to the Premier League.

Italian football had been dominating both on and off the pitch long before 1992, however, with its clubs breaking the world transfer record six times over the previous eight years.

From 1989 to 1999, there was an Italian side in every European Cup/Champions League final bar two.

While, they were even more dominant in the Uefa Cup, boasting eight winners in 11 years during the same period, as well as six losing finalists.

And they also won the Cup Winners' Cup on three occasions, with two runners-up.

Furthermore, eight of the Ballon d'Or awards handed out in that 11-year period went to a player in Serie A.

There was an incredible depth of talent, as the best players were not just playing at the best teams: from 1984 to 2000, five different Italian sides broke the world transfer record.

To put the amount of money being spent into perspective, it would take a further 11 years before a Premier League side was able to match the £35million Lazio paid Parma for Hernan Crespo in 2000.

Italian football had reached a level of power never seen before.

It was a period where Inter Milan could bully Barcelona into selling them Ronaldo, and broke the £30m barrier to sign Christian Vieri without even being able to offer European football.

Fiorentina were relegated at the end of the first season of Football Italia, but managed to hold onto Gabriel Batistuta, despite interest from many of the world's biggest clubs.

Italian football appeared untouchable, with wealthy owners stopping at nothing to in search of success in the most demanding league of all time.

However, it would all come crashing down horribly in later years.

Following on from Verona's "Leicester-esque" Scudetto in the 1984-85 season, perhaps purely coincidentally, referees were no longer randomly allocated matches.

Officials were specifically chosen, and this eventually led to the famous Calciopoli scandal which would bring Italian football down in 2006.

Phone calls intercepted revealed a network of relations between clubs and referees, which saw the biggest teams handpicking favourable officials for certain matches and they were found guilty of match-fixing.

The results were catastrophic for Italian football with Juventus, who had been champions in the previous two seasons, stripped of their two titles and relegated to Serie B with a nine-point deduction.

Meanwhile, AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were also deducted points for their part in the scandal.

Inter were the big winners as they robbed their rivals of their best players, but struggled to carry the fort for Italian football despite their 2010 Treble — and just six years later, Serie A lost a Champions League place.

For the next ten seasons after the scandal, they had two winners, with no runners-up.

However, two finals in the past three years for Juventus has given Serie A a bit of a boost.

But we are a long way away from a time when Parma, Sampdoria, Napoli and Torino were regular European finalists.