Is Italian football actually broken?
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Despite being 10 points clear in Serie A, Inter have been knocked out the Champions League by Bodo/Glimt.
Juventus followed suit on Wednesday night meaning Italy’s only round of 16 representative is Atalanta.
So, is Italian football in crisis or this season's performance just a blip?
Host: Ayo Akinwolere
With: James Horncastle and Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero
Executive Producer: Adey Moorhead
Producers: Guy Clarke, Jay Beale and Paul Iliffe
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic FC |
| 0:03.1 | Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Ayo Akemolere. |
| 0:09.3 | Despite being 10 points clear in Syria, |
| 0:12.1 | Inter have been knocked out of the Champions League by Buda Glimped. |
| 0:16.0 | Juventus followed suit on Wednesday night, |
| 0:17.8 | meaning Italy's only round of 16 representative is Atalanta. |
| 0:22.2 | So is Italian football at its lowest point in history? |
| 0:29.6 | In with us today, we've got James Horncastle. |
| 0:31.8 | We've also got Thomas Hill Lopez Mencherro as well. |
| 0:35.5 | All right, later on in the show, we'll get into the Champions League resort elsewhere |
| 0:38.9 | as Real Madrid and also PSG sought off scares to make it through to the round of 16. |
| 0:44.5 | All right, James, on Tuesday night, Inter last season's beaten finalist were knocked out by Buda Glimt. |
| 0:51.5 | That was followed by Juventus losing to Galatasaray on Wednesday as well, |
| 0:56.4 | despite taking it all the way to extra time. I thought the old ladies still had it in her. |
| 1:01.5 | But talk to me. Is this a big crisis for Seria? |
| 1:04.7 | I think we tend to use the Champions League as a barometer for the strength of leagues. |
| 1:13.6 | I do think Silia is judged to a higher standard than say La Liga or the Bundesliga just because of what it did in the past, |
| 1:21.6 | particularly in the 80s, 90s and 2000s. You know, you don't, for example, hear people talking |
| 1:26.9 | about a crisis in La Liga when |
| 1:29.5 | Villarreal and Athletic don't even make it to the playoff round of the Champions League. |
| 1:35.7 | Usually, you just look at what a Barcelona doing, Barcelona finished top eight, Madrid, second |
| 1:42.1 | season in a row in the playoff round. |
... |
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