The Supercoppa Italiana has never been a particularly luxurious honour but the format changes and move to Saudi Arabia only increase the trophy’s irrelevancy.
The four participating Serie A teams – Napoli, Fiorentina, Inter and Lazio – will all travel to Riyadh next week to play out at least one match in the new four team Supercoppa format.
Napoli will face Fiorentina on January 18 before Inter take on Lazio a day later. The two winners will battle it out for the trophy on January 22. The winner takes home €8m in prize money, with €5m going to the runners-up and €1.6m to the two losing semi-finalists.
For most of its history, the Supercoppa Italiana was nothing more than a pre-season affair for participating teams, giving fans something small to smile about before their new campaign. This was the iteration where the trophy shined best, keeping things simple and adding a modicum of importance.
Now, the Supercoppa Italiana has reached the end state of footballing capitalism, selling a new format involving four teams instead of the traditional two to Saudi Arabia, who spent €23m for the honours of hosting.
Not only does this edition of the competition disrupt the course of the season for the four participating teams, it also adds yet more games to the calendar for players who are already taking to action far more than in the past.
Local fans have now been entirely priced out of matches which mean essentially nothing to any of the participating teams, with all four fighting for more important goals in Serie A and Europe, and the format change only exists to sell more games, adding nothing to the trophy’s valour.
Last month, the Turkish Super Cup between Fenerbahce and Galatasaray was set to be played in Saudi Arabia, but the match was called off due to fan resistance and anger over the decision not to allow banners and shirts celebrating the country’s modern founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
The move was positively received by neutral football fans, who are already overwhelmed with far too much football across the year between national and international games.
Despite the insistence of Lega Serie A, there is no way to make the Supercoppa Italiana too exciting to supporters and the decision to sell it out to the Saudis only makes it more forgettable and irrelevant.