ABSTRACT
Football has acted as a sensor to political change, going far beyond both its traditional image portrayed by celebrities and management, as well as the use, and not always just an ironic one, of language and iconography of extremism on the part of vocal supporters. Dal Lago has described the "footballization of politics". On 8 September 1996 the first football championship of the Bosman era opened. At the same time, the practice of bringing forward matches to Saturdays becomes wider, as it is more practical for the demands of a packed international calendar and, above all, of television consumption. Nineteen-ninety-six is also the year in which spectator football becomes contested on the battlefield of the television war. Facing a classic problem of allocation of resources and legitimization of institutional roles, the federation experienced a crisis which highlights the anachronism of a legal structure which denies the chance to medium-sized professional football clubs to pursue profit-oriented goals.
