Antonio Cabrini
Antonio Cabrini is an Italian professional football manager and a former player. He has played left-back with Juventus, he won the 1982 FIFA World Cup with the Italian national team. Cabrini was nicknamed Bell'Antonio, because of his popularity as a charismatic and good-looking football player. On the field, he made a name for himself as one of Italy's greatest defenders and is remembered in particular for forming one of the most formidable defensive units of all time with Italy and Juventus, alongside goalkeeper Dino Zoff, as well as defenders Claudio Gentile, Gaetano Scirea. Cabrini won the Best Young Player Award at the 1978 World Cup, after helping Italy managed a fourth-place finish, represented Italy at Euro 1980, once again finishing in fourth place, he is one of the few players to have won all UEFA Club competitions, an achievement he managed with Juventus. Cabrini was born in Lombardy, he made his professional football debut with the local team U. S. Cremonese in the Serie C during the 1973–74 season, making 3 appearances and gaining a starting place the following 1974–75 season.
In the 1975–76 season he played in the Serie B for Atalanta, in the summer of 1976 he was acquired by Juventus, the team for which he was to spend most of his career. With Juventus, he won the Italian Serie A 6 times, the Coppa Italia 2 times, 1 UEFA Super Cup, 1 UEFA Champions League, 1 UEFA Cup and 1 Intercontinental European/South American Cup. In his final season with Juventus, he captained the side, after inheriting the armband from Scirea. In 1989, after 13 successful seasons with the Turin club, he moved to Bologna for two more years before retiring as a player, he played. Cabrini was called up to Italy's being part of the list of 20 players to participate in the 1978 FIFA World Cup despite being uncapped, he earned his first cap on 2 June 1978, in Italy's opening game against France, which ended in a 2–1 win to the "Azzurri". He soon became an international regular for the next 9 years. Overall, Cabrini played 18 games during World Cup final stages, winning the 1982 edition despite missing a penalty in the final against West Germany.
He represented Italy at Euro 1980 as a starter on home soil, finishing the tournament in fourth place, after reaching the semi-finals. Cabrini was part of the 1982 World Cup-winning team that included goalkeeper Dino Zoff, Gaetano Scirea, Giuseppe Bergomi, Claudio Gentile in defense, Marco Tardelli and Bruno Conti in midfield, Cabrini's Juventus teammate Paolo Rossi in attack. Cabrini gave a strong performance throughout the tournament, helping to lead his country to win the title, keeping two clean sheets throughout the tournament, but scoring the crucial match-winning goal in Italy's 2–1 second round win over defending champions Argentina. In total, he earned 73 caps for his country and scored 9 goals, ending his career with the Azzurri in October 1987, earning his final appearance on 17 October 1987, in a 0–0 draw against Switzerland, he captained the national side 10 times. A fast and powerful attacking left-back, Cabrini is considered one of the greatest full-backs of his generation and of all time, as well as being regarded as one of the best defenders in the history of Italian football.
A former left winger, he was capable of playing on the left side of an attacking trident. Cabrini's attacking prowess, eye for goal, crossing ability, along with his technical ability, enabled him to revolutionise the role of the modern full-back in Italian football, he added a new attacking dimension to the position: he was known for being prolific in front of goal, despite his defensive playing role, courtesy of his striking ability from distance, his ability to make attacking runs up the flank; these skills, combined with his precociousness and defensive ability, as well as his athletic, physical qualities, made of him one of the best full-backs in the world in his prime. Despite his popularity off the pitch and open character, he was known for being a man of few words throughout his career. Cabrini started a coaching career in 2000 with Serie C1 club Arezzo, replacing Serse Cosmi and losing promotion on playoffs, he coached Serie B's Crotone with little fortune, served as head coach for Serie C1 clubs Pisa and Novara Calcio, although with dismal results.
He was announced to become the head coach of Syria national football team in September 2007, but soon after the announcement, problems started in the Syrian FA between the board of Directors and the Syrian National Teams Sponsors and thus the agreement with Cabrini was terminated in February 2008, before he managed the team. He was planned to take the Syrian team through the World Cup 2010 Qualifications and to make a preparation camp in Italy, but all, canceled after the financial problems within the FA. On 14 May 2012, Cabrini was appointed coach of Italy women's national team. On 4 August 2017, after five years as coach, he was replaced by Milen
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association is an organization which describes itself as an international governing body of association football, fútsal, beach soccer, eFootball. FIFA is responsible for the organization of football's major international tournaments, notably the World Cup which commenced in 1930 and the Women's World Cup which commenced in 1991. FIFA was founded in 1904 to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. Headquartered in Zürich, its membership now comprises 211 national associations. Member countries must each be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: Africa, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean and South America. Although FIFA does not control the rules of football, that being the responsibility of the International Football Association Board, it is responsible for both the organization of a number of tournaments and their promotion, which generate revenue from sponsorship.
In 2017, FIFA had revenues of over US $734 million, for a net loss of $189 million, had cash reserves of over US$930 million. Reports by investigative journalists have linked FIFA leadership with corruption and vote-rigging related to the election of FIFA president Sepp Blatter and the organization's decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively; these allegations led to the indictments of nine high-ranking FIFA officials and five corporate executives by the U. S. Department of Justice on charges including racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering. On 27 May 2015, several of these officials were arrested by Swiss authorities, who were launching a simultaneous but separate criminal investigation into how the organization awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups; those among these officials who were indicted in the U. S. are expected to be extradited to face charges there as well. Many officials were suspended by FIFA's ethics committee including Michel Platini. In early 2017 reports became public about FIFA president Gianni Infantino attempting to prevent the re-elections of both chairmen of the ethics committee, Cornel Borbély and Hans-Joachim Eckert, during the FIFA congress in May 2017.
On May 9, 2017, following Infantino's proposal, FIFA Council decided not to renew the mandates of Borbély and Eckert. Together with the chairmen, 11 of 13 committee members were removed; the need for a single body to oversee association football became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association was founded in the rear of the headquarters of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques at the Rue Saint Honoré 229 in Paris on 21 May 1904; the French name and acronym are used outside French-speaking countries. The founding members were the national associations of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland; that same day, the German Football Association declared its intention of affiliating through a telegram. The first president of FIFA was Robert Guérin. Guérin was replaced in 1906 by Daniel Burley Woolfall from England, by a member of the association; the first tournament FIFA staged, the association football competition for the 1908 Olympics in London was more successful than its Olympic predecessors, despite the presence of professional footballers, contrary to the founding principles of FIFA.
Membership of FIFA expanded beyond Europe with the application of South Africa in 1909, Argentina in 1912, Canada and Chile in 1913, the United States in 1914. During World War II, with many players sent off to war and the possibility of travel for international fixtures limited, the organization's survival was in doubt. Post-war, following the death of Woolfall, the organisation was run by Dutchman Carl Hirschmann, it was saved from extinction but at the cost of the withdrawal of the Home Nations, who cited an unwillingness to participate in international competitions with their recent World War enemies. The Home Nations resumed their membership; the FIFA collection is held by the National Football Museum at Urbis in England. The first World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay. FIFA is headquartered in Zürich, is an association established under the law of Switzerland. FIFA's supreme body is the FIFA Congress, an assembly made up of representatives from each affiliated member association; each national football association has one vote, regardless of footballing strength.
The Congress assembles in ordinary session once every year, extraordinary sessions have been held once a year since 1998. The congress makes decisions relating to FIFA's governing statutes and their method of implementation and application. Only the Congress can pass changes to FIFA's statutes; the congress approves the annual report, decides on the acceptance of new national associations and holds elections. Congress elects the President of FIFA, its general secretary, the other members of the FIFA Council in the year following the FIFA World Cup. FIFA Council — called the FIFA Executive Committee and chaired by the president — is the main decision-making body of the organisation in the intervals of congress; the council is composed of 37 people: the president. The Executive Committee is the body that decides w
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War; the current champion is France. The current format of the competition involves a qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years, to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase, called the World Cup Finals. After this, 32 teams, including the automatically qualifying host nation, compete in the tournament phase for the title at venues within the host nation over a period of about a month; the 21 World Cup tournaments have been won by eight national teams. Brazil have won five times, they are the only team to have played in every tournament; the other World Cup winners are Italy, with four titles each.
The World Cup is the most prestigious association football tournament in the world, as well as the most viewed and followed sporting event in the world, exceeding the Olympic Games. Brazil, Italy and Mexico have each hosted twice, while Uruguay, Sweden, England, Spain, the United States and South Korea, South Africa and Russia have each hosted once. Qatar are planned as hosts of the 2022 finals, 2026 will be jointly hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico, which will give Mexico the distinction of being the first country to have hosted games in three finals; the world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England, which ended in a 0–0 draw. The first international tournament, the inaugural British Home Championship, took place in 1884; as football grew in popularity in other parts of the world at the start of the 20th century, it was held as a demonstration sport with no medals awarded at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics, at the 1906 Intercalated Games.
After FIFA was founded in 1904, it tried to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. These were early days for international football, the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been a failure. At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, football became an official competition. Planned by The Football Association, England's football governing body, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. Great Britain won the gold medals, they repeated the feat at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. With the Olympic event continuing to be contested only between amateur teams, Sir Thomas Lipton organised the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy tournament in Turin in 1909; the Lipton tournament was a championship between individual clubs from different nations, each one of which represented an entire nation. The competition is sometimes described as The First World Cup, featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy and Switzerland, but the FA of England refused to be associated with the competition and declined the offer to send a professional team.
Lipton invited an amateur side from County Durham, to represent England instead. West Auckland won the tournament and returned in 1911 to defend their title. In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", took responsibility for managing the event; this paved the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition, at the 1920 Summer Olympics, contested by Egypt and 13 European teams, won by Belgium. Uruguay won the next two Olympic football tournaments in 1924 and 1928; those were the first two open world championships, as 1924 was the start of FIFA's professional era. Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with President Jules Rimet as the driving force, again started looking at staging its own international tournament outside of the Olympics. On 28 May 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship itself. With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the inaugural World Cup tournament.
The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides. Indeed, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition. Rimet persuaded teams from Belgium, France and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In total, 13 nations took part: seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America; the first two World Cup matches took place on 13 July 1930, were won by France and the USA, who defeated Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0 respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent o
Cagliari Calcio
Cagliari Calcio referred to as Cagliari, is an Italian football club based in Cagliari, Sardinia. The club plays in Serie A, they won their only Scudetto in 1969–70, when they were led by the Italian national team's all-time leading scorer, Luigi Riva. The triumph was the first by a club from south of Rome. Cagliari's colours are red; as of 2018–19, the team is temporarily playing their home games at the 16,000 Sardegna Arena, adjacent to the future new stadium site. The club's best European performance was in the 1993–94 UEFA Cup, losing in the semi-finals to Internazionale. Cagliari became the first out-right champions of Serie C during the 1951–52 season, they spent the 1950s from on in Serie B, losing a promotion play-off in 1954. After descending to Serie C in the early 1960s, Cagliari's rise would be meteoric achieving promotion to Serie A in 1964; the squad for the Rossoblu's debut season in Serie A featured players like defender Mario Martiradonna, midfielders Pierluigi Cera, Nené and Ricciotti Greatti, forward Luigi Riva.
A poor first half of the season, saw Cagliari in last place with nine points at the halfway mark. An astonishing second half of the season saw Cagliari defeat the likes of Juventus and Milan and finish in seventh place with 34 points. Two seasons Riva finished as Serie A's top scorer for the first time while Cagliari finished with the league's best defensive record. During the summer of 1967, Cagliari played a season in North America as part of a fledgling league called the United Soccer Association; this league from Europe and South America to play in American and Canadian cities, with each club bearing a local name. Cagliari played as the Chicago Mustangs, finished joint second in the league's Western Division with 13 points, two behind the division champion and eventual league champion Los Angeles Wolves; the league's leading scorer was Chicago/Cagliari's Roberto Boninsegna, who scored ten goals while playing in 9 of the team's 12 games. Cagliari first emerged as serious Serie A title contenders in 1968–69 with a three-horse race involving them and Milan.
Fiorentina would win the league. With Angelo Domenghini joining the side, Cagliari would win the title in 1970 with only two games lost, 11 goals conceded and Riva as league top scorer once more. Players like Albertosi, Boninsegna, Cera and Riva played in Italy's 1970 World Cup final team; the 1970s would see a gradual decline. Cagliari were relegated in 1976, with Riva's career having ended during that season. After relegation, Cagliari lost a play-off for promotion the following season and would return to Serie A in 1979. Players like Franco Selvaggi, Mario Brugnera and Alberto Marchetti ensured a respectable four-year stay in the top flight before a second relegation in 1983; the 1980s would prove to be a darker time compared to the previous two decades with relegation to Serie C1 in 1987. Cagliari spent two seasons in Serie C1. In the first one it avoided relegation in Serie C2. In 1988, Claudio Ranieri was appointed coach, led the team to two successive promotions, to Serie B in 1989 and to Serie A in 1990.
The first two seasons back in Serie A saw Cagliari fight relegation, with safety being achieved by excellent second half runs. But the 1992–93 season would see Cagliari fight for a European place and succeed under the management of Carlo Mazzone; the following season saw a run to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, unprecedented for the Sardinian club. The next few years would see Cagliari return to mid-table anonymity, before a struggle in 1996–97 saw Cagliari relegated after losing a play-off to Piacenza. Once more they bounced back after just one year, but their next stay in Serie A lasted just two seasons. Cagliari spent the next four seasons in Serie B, for most part in mid-table mediocrity, but 2003–04 would see the Rossoblu, led by Sardinian-born Gianfranco Zola, mount a successful promotion challenge and the following season saw Cagliari hold their own in Serie A with a respectable mid-table finish. The following season was a quiet one for the Sardinians, they obtained a good mid-table position.
The 2005–06 season, the first without Zola, started in the worst way possible for Cagliari, who changed their manager three times, with Attilio Tesser, Daniele Arrigoni and Davide Ballardini alternating to the position of coach, before Nedo Sonetti, appointed in November, was able to save the team from a relegation thanks to goals from Honduran striker David Suazo. For the 2006–07 season, Marco Giampaolo was signed as head coach, however he was fired after the 17th match and replaced by Franco Colomba. However, after a number of poor performances which ended in a 2–0 home defeat to Lazio, Colomba was sacked, chairman Cellino chose to reinstate Giampaolo as head coach. Giampaolo was confirmed for the 2007–08 season, his contract was extended for two more years; the 2007–08 season saw the flagship strikers David Suazo, Mauro Esposito and Antonio Langella leave for Internazionale and Atalanta and the experienced goalkeeper Chimenti leave for Udinese. The club reinforced itself with youngsters likes Robert Acquafresca, Alessandro Matri, Pasquale Foggia, Argentine Joaquín Larrivey and Slovenian Jan Koprivec.
Nedo Sonetti returned to coach the Rossoblu in November 2007 after Giampaolo was relieved of his duties as a result of poor results in the first part of the 2007–08 Serie A season that saw
Germany national football team
The Germany national football team is the men's football team that has represented Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association, founded in 1900. Since the DFB was reinaugurated in 1949 the team has represented the Federal Republic of Germany. Under Allied occupation and division, two other separate national teams were recognised by FIFA: the Saarland team representing the Saarland and the East German team representing the German Democratic Republic. Both have been absorbed along with their records by the current national team; the official name and code "Germany FR" was shortened to "Germany" following the reunification in 1990. Germany is one of the most successful national teams in international competitions, having won four World Cups, three European Championships, one Confederations Cup, they have been runners-up three times in the European Championships, four times in the World Cup, a further four third-place finishes at World Cups. East Germany won Olympic Gold in 1976.
Germany is the only nation to have won both the FIFA Women's World Cup. At the end of the 2014 World Cup, Germany earned the highest Elo rating of any national football team in history, with a record 2205 points. Germany is the only European nation that has won a FIFA World Cup in the Americas; the manager of the national team is Joachim Löw. Between 1899 and 1901, prior to the formation of a national team, there were five unofficial international matches between German and English selection teams, which all ended as large defeats for the German teams. Eight years after the establishment of the German Football Association, the first official match of the Germany national football team was played on 5 April 1908, against Switzerland in Basel, with the Swiss winning 5–3. Gottfried Fuchs scored a world record 10 goals for Germany in a 16–0 win against Russia at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm on 1 July, becoming the top scorer of the tournament, he was Jewish, the German Football Association erased all references to him from their records between 1933 and 1945.
As of 2016, he was still the top German scorer for one match. The first match after World War I in 1920, the first match after World War II in 1950 when Germany was still banned from most international competitions, the first match in 1990 with former East German players were all against Switzerland as well. Germany's first championship title was won in Switzerland in 1954. At that time the players were selected by the DFB; the first manager of the Germany national team was Otto Nerz, a school teacher from Mannheim, who served in the role from 1926 to 1936. The German FA could not afford travel to Uruguay for the first World Cup staged in 1930 during the Great Depression, but finished third in the 1934 World Cup in their first appearance in the competition. After a poor showing at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Sepp Herberger became coach. In 1937 he put together a squad, soon nicknamed the Breslau Elf in recognition of their 8–0 win over Denmark in the German city of Breslau, Lower Silesia.
After Austria became part of Germany in the Anschluss of March 1938, that country's national team – one of Europe's best sides at the time due to professionalism – was disbanded despite having qualified for the 1938 World Cup. Nazi politicians ordered five or six ex-Austrian players, from the clubs Rapid Vienna, Austria Vienna, First Vienna FC, to join the all-German team on short notice in a staged show of unity for political reasons. In the 1938 World Cup that began on 4 June, this "united" German team managed only a 1–1 draw against Switzerland and lost the replay 2–4 in front of a hostile crowd in Paris, France; that early exit stands as Germany's worst World Cup result, one of just two occasions the team failed to progress the group stage. During World War II, the team played over 30 international games between September 1939 and November 1942. National team games were suspended, as most players had to join the armed forces. Many of the national team players were gathered together under coach Herberger as Rote Jäger through the efforts of a sympathetic air force officer trying to protect the footballers from the most dangerous wartime service.
After World War II, Germany was banned from competition in most sports until 1950. The DFB was not a full member of FIFA, none of the three new German states — West Germany, East Germany, Saarland — entered the 1950 World Cup qualifiers; the Federal Republic of Germany, referred to as West Germany, continued the DFB. With recognition by FIFA and UEFA, the DFB continued the record of the pre-war team. Switzerland was once again the first team that played West Germany in 1950. West Germany qualified for the 1954 World Cup; the Saarland, under French control between 1947 and 1956, did not join French organisations, was barred from participating in pan-German ones. It sent their own team to the 1954 World Cup qualifiers. In 1957, Saarland acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1949, the communist German Democratic Republic was founded. In 1952 the Deutscher Fußball-Verband der DDR was established and the East Germany national football team took to the field, they were the only team to beat the 1974 FIFA World Cup winning West Germans in the onl
Serie A
Serie A called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Coppa Campioni d'Italia. It has been operating for over eighty years since the 1929–30 season, it had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, when the Lega Serie A was created for the 2010–11 season. Serie A is regarded as one of the best football leagues in the world and it is depicted as the most tactical national league. Serie A was the world's second-strongest national league in 2014 according to IFFHSand has produced the highest number of European Cup finalists: Italian clubs have reached the final of the competition on 27 occasions, winning the title 12 times. Serie A is ranked third among European leagues according to UEFA's league coefficient, behind La Liga, Premier League, ahead of Bundesliga and Ligue 1, based on the performance of Italian clubs in the Champions League and the Europa League during the last five years.
Serie A led the UEFA ranking from 1986 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1999. In its current format, the Italian Football Championship was revised from having regional and interregional rounds, to a single-tier league from the 1929–30 season onwards; the championship titles won prior to 1929 are recognised by FIGC with the same weighting as titles that were subsequently awarded. However, the 1945–46 season, when the league was played over two geographical groups due to the ravages of WWII, is not statistically considered if its title is official. All the winning teams are recognised with the title of Campione d'Italia, ratified by the Lega Serie A before the start of the next edition of the championship; the league hosts three of the world's most famous clubs as Juventus and Internazionale, all founding members of the G-14, a group which represented the largest and most prestigious European football clubs from 2000 to 2008, being the first two cited founding members of its successive organisation, European Club Association.
More players have won the coveted Ballon d'Or award while playing at a Serie A club than any league in the world other than Spain's La Liga. – although Spain's La Liga has the highest total number of Ballon d'Or winners. Juventus, Italy's most successful club of the 20th century and the most successful Italian team, is tied for fourth in Europe and eighth in the world with the most official international titles; the club is the only one in the world to have won all possible official confederation competitions. Milan is joint third club for official international titles won in the world, with 18. Internazionale, following their achievements in the 2009–10 season, became the first Italian team to have achieved a treble. Inter are the only team in Italian football history to have never been relegated. Juventus and Inter, along with Roma, Fiorentina and Napoli, are known as the Seven Sisters of Italian football. Serie A is one of the most storied football leagues in the world. Of the 100 greatest footballers in history chosen by FourFourTwo magazine in 2017, 42 players have played in Serie A, more than any other league in the world.
Juventus is the team that has produced the most World Cup champions, with Inter and Milan, being third and ninth in that ranking. Serie A, as it is structured today, began during the 1929–30 season. From 1898 to 1922, the competition was organised into regional groups; because of growing teams attending regional championships, the Italian Football Federation split the CCI in 1921. When CCI teams rejoined the FIGC created two interregional divisions renaming Categories into Divisions and splitting FIGC sections into two North-South leagues. In 1926, due to internal crises, the FIGC changed internal settings, adding southern teams to the national division leading to the 1929–30 final settlement. No title was awarded in 1927 after Torino were stripped of the championship by the FIGC. Torino were declared champions in the 1948–49 season following a plane crash near the end of the season in which the entire team was killed; the Serie A Championship title is referred to as the scudetto because since the 1924–25 season, the winning team will bear a small coat of arms with the Italian tricolour on their strip in the following season.
The most successful club is Juventus with 34 championships, followed by both Milan and Internazionale, with 18 championships apiece. From the 2004–05 season onwards, an actual trophy was awarded to club on the pitch after the last turn of the championship; the trophy, called the Coppa Campioni d'Italia, has been used since the 1960–61 season, but between 1961 and 2004 was consigned to the winning clubs at the head office of the Lega Nazionale Professionisti. In April 2009, Serie A announced a split from Serie B. Nineteen of the twenty clubs voted in favour of the move in an argument over television rights. Maurizio Beretta, the former head of Italy's employers' association, became president of the new league. In April 2016, it was announced that Serie A was selected by the International Football Association Board to test video replays, which were private for the 2016–17 season, allowing them to become a live pilot phase, with replay assistance implemented in the 2017–18 season. On the decision, FIGC President Carlo Tavecchio said, "We were among the first supporters of using technology on the pitch and we believe we have everything required to offer our contribution to this important experiment."
For most of Serie A's history, there were 16 or 18
Franco Baresi
Franco Baresi is an Italian football youth team coach and a former player and manager. He played as a sweeper or as a central defender, spent his entire 20-year career with Serie A club Milan, captaining the club for 15 seasons, he is considered one of the greatest defenders of all-time and was ranked 19th in World Soccer magazine's list of the 100 greatest players of the 20th century. With Milan, he won three UEFA Champions League titles, six Serie A titles, four Supercoppa Italiana titles, two European Super Cups and two Intercontinental Cups. With the Italy national team, he won the 1982 FIFA World Cup, he played in the 1990 World Cup, where he was named in the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team, finishing third in the competition. At the 1994 World Cup, he was named Italy's captain and was an integral part of the squad that reached the final, although he would miss a penalty in the resulting shoot-out as Brazil lifted the trophy. Baresi represented Italy at two UEFA European Championships, in 1980 and 1988, at the 1984 Olympics, reaching the semi-finals on each occasion.
The younger brother of former footballer Giuseppe Baresi, after joining the Milan senior team as a youngster, Franco Baresi was nicknamed "Piscinin", Milanese for "little one". Due to his skill and success, he was known as "Kaiser Franz", a reference to fellow sweeper Franz Beckenbauer. In 1999, he was voted Milan's Player of the Century. After his final season at Milan in 1997, the club retired Baresi's shirt number 6, he was named by Pelé one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at the FIFA centenary awards ceremony in 2004. Baresi was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame in 2013. A Milan youth product, Baresi went on to spend his entire 20-year professional career with Milan, making his Serie A debut at age 17 during the 1977–78 season on 23 April 1978, he had been rejected by Internazionale, who chose his brother Giuseppe instead, while Milan signed Franco Baresi. The following season, he was made a member of the starting 11, playing as a sweeper or as a centreback, winning the 1978–79 Serie A title, Milan's tenth overall, playing alongside Fabio Capello and Gianni Rivera.
This success was soon followed by a dark period in the club's history, when Milan was relegated to Serie B twice during the early 1980s. Milan were relegated in 1980 for being involved in the match fixing scandal of 1980, once again after finishing third-last in the 1981–82 season, after having just returned to Serie A the previous season, after winning the 1980–81 Serie B title. Despite being a member of the Euro 1980 Italy squad that had finished fourth, the 1982 World Cup-winning team, Baresi elected to stay with Milan, winning the Serie B title for the second time during the 1982–83 season and bringing Milan back to Serie A. After Aldo Maldera and Fulvio Collovati left the club in 1982, Baresi was appointed Milan's captain, at age 22, would hold this position for much of his time at the club, becoming a symbol and a leader for the team. During this bleak period for Milan, Baresi did manage to win a Mitropa Cup in 1982 and reached the Coppa Italia final during 1984–85 season, although the team failed to dominate in Serie A.
During the end of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, Baresi was at the heart of a notable all-Italian defence alongside Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta, Mauro Tassotti and Christian Panucci, under managers Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello, a defence, regarded by many as one of the greatest of all-time. When the attacking Dutch trio of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard arrived at the club in the late 1980s, Milan began a period of domestic and international triumphs, between 1987 and 1996, at the height of the club's success, the Milan squad contained many Italian and international stars, such as Roberto Donadoni, Carlo Ancelotti, Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Demetrio Albertini, Dejan Savićević, Zvonimir Boban, Marcel Desailly, George Weah, Jean-Pierre Papin, Brian Laudrup and Roberto Baggio. Under Sacchi, Milan won the Serie A title in 1987–88, with Baresi helping Milan to concede only 14 goals; this title was followed by a Supercoppa Italiana in 1988 the next season, back-to-back European Cups in 1988–89 and 1989–90.
Baresi was runner-up to teammate Van Basten for the Ballon d'Or in 1989, finishing ahead of his other teammate Frank Rijkaard, was named Serie A Footballer of the Year in 1989–90. Milan reached the Coppa Italia final during the 1989–90 season. Baresi went on to win four more Serie A titles with Milan under Fabio Capello, including three consecutive titles in 1991–92, 1992–93 and the 1993–94 seasons. Baresi helped Milan win the 1991–92 title undefeated, helping Milan to go unbeaten for an Italian record of 58 matches. Milan scored a record 74 goals that season. During the 1993–94 season, Baresi helped Milan concede a mere 15 goals in Serie A, helping the club to finish the season with the best defence. Baresi won three consecutive Supercoppa Italiana under Capello, in 1992, 1993 and 1994. Milan reached three consecutive UEFA Champions League finals during the 1992–93, 1993–94 and 1994–95 seasons, losing to Marseille in 1992–93 and Ajax in 1994–95. Baresi won the third European Cup/UEFA Champions League of his career in 1993–94 when Milan defeated Johan Cruyff's Barcelona "Dream Team" 4–0 in the final.
Baresi managed to win the 1994 UEFA Super Cup, although Milan were defeated in the 1994 Intercontinental Cup, the 1993 UEFA Super Cup and the 1993 Intercontinental Cup. Under Capello and Baresi were able to capture another Serie A title during 1995–96 season, Baresi's sixth. Baresi retired at the end of the 1996–97 Serie A season, at age 37. I
