Football Italia was a television programme in the United Kingdom, showing Italian football, that ran from 1992 to 2002 on Channel 4, and continued until 2008 on other channels. It was known as Football Italiano in its final season. The show centred on live coverage of Serie A, the top division in the Italian football league system. James Richardson presented the show for a large part of its existence. The first live match shown was a 3–3 draw between Sampdoria and Lazio on 6 September 1992, attracting three million UK viewers. Gazzetta Football Italia, a highlights show, became the highest-rated Saturday morning program in Channel 4's history at the time, with around 800,000 viewers a week in its first season, 1992–93. At its peak in the 1990s, Football Italia attracted over 3 million viewers, and remains the most watched programme in the UK about a non-British domestic football league. Presenter James Richardson was popular for his humour and his ability to avoid many of the clichés of football presenting. After being shown on Five in the 2007–08 season, Football Italiano was cancelled by the channel and did not continue elsewhere on television. History Serie A was first shown regularly in Britain in 1988 on Channel 4's partner broadcaster in Wales, S4C. In 1990, British Satellite Broadcasting brought the first live Italian football to a small number of British homes with squarials on The Sports Channel, which later became BSkyB's Sky Sports. Channel 4 (1992–2002) In 1992 Channel 4 acquired the rights to broadcast Serie A in the United Kingdom, paying £1.5m for coverage for the 1992–93 season. Football Italia was started as a response to several factors: the English top-flight was no longer on free-to-air terrestrial television but on BSkyB, England star player Paul Gascoigne had transferred to Lazio, and S4C's European football programme Sgorio had good ratings. Italy's Serie A contained many of the world's best players, with its clubs paying spectacularly high transfer fees. The quality of English football was seen as lower, partly due to its 1985–90 ban from UEFA competitions, brought on by hooliganism. Channel 4 had brief experience of showing football: Martin Tyler reported on the 1983 Brazilian Cup Final; in 1985, it carried ITV's live coverage of an Australia–Scotland World Cup qualifier. The Women's FA Cup was prominently televised on Channel 4 from 1989 until 1993 to millions of viewers. Television production company Chrysalis