With Serie A resuming in full swing, the spotlight returns to another type of game played by the fans, however: Fantasy Football
The pop counterpart of the Italian league restarts, thousands of fantasy coaches all over the country come back to deal with short squads, players to be deployed and bonuses. For many years now, Fantasy Football has been an integral part of this sport for many people, who thanks to the game in question are able to feel first DS and then coaches. It is important to say that today fielding the squads and following the players of your own team is a sort of guide to real sports news, obviously linked to the championship that you are following.
Where does the story of Fantasy Football begin and, above all, where is the game going? Questions that always open up new paths: if the past is certain, the future is made up of possibilities and examples to imitate. Because even if Fantasy Football as we understand it today is an all-Italian invention, it must be admitted that today we see its maximum expression elsewhere.
A brief history of fantasy football: where it all started
The history of Fantasy Football began with Riccardo Albini, a journalist who had the merit of understanding the potential of this format in the mid-80s, when his attention was drawn to a particular guide dedicated to the world of the NFL: “Fantasy Football “.
Albini wondered if it was possible, by changing a few rules, to give life to a game similar to Fantasy Football but inspired by Football. From there the first Fantasy Football was born, in which Albini and his friends participated, which had rudimentary rules: for example, instead of the auction there was a sort of American draft. It was the summer of 1988 and the first edition of the Fantasy Soccer game only concerned the European Championships.
The game was so successful that it was also put into practice in the following season (1988/1989), giving life to the first Fantasy Football auction in history. In 1990 the book dedicated to the game was released, already in the first year there were fifteen thousand coaches but it is in the 1994/1995 season that the agreement with the Gazzetta dello Sport was signed: in that “official” edition of Fantasy Football more than 70,000 registered participants.
Fantasy football today
If in the first period to arrange the squad and see the scores you read the newspapers or at most you checked the teletext, today everything is simpler. We are constantly updated, the news bounces from one site to another and in a few minutes everyone knows everything. Accidents, rumors, latest news: nobody misses anything.
SOS Fanta or Fantacalcio.it are the reference portals: no sheets and paperwork, but all the statistics and numbers that are recorded directly on the app that saves the progress of the various leagues and calculates the days automatically, based on selected parameters by the administrator of the single league.
Magia della Gazzetta dello Sport or Superscudetto di Sky Sport are the striking examples of how some giants of publishing and television have decided to focus on Fantasy Football, confirming the potential of a game that involves millions of fans every year.
How Italian football could make the most of the game
In Italy, the management of Fantasy Football is divided into several portals, none of which belong to the Italian Football League. The institutions of Italian football do not seem too interested in a game capable of arousing interest in games that otherwise would have no appeal.
Fantasy football in Italy is a cause for discussion, is trendy and the coaches are always ready to follow any player and any game in the hope of seeing a +3 soon materialize next to their player.
Although there is always talk of a management of Fantasy Football by private companies, something is also starting to move in Italy: the Sky Fanta Show program has recently been launched on Sky Sport, taking its cue from the English model. In addition to the social point of view, Serie A still seems to be lagging behind in this respect compared to other European Leagues.