12 Yards: I would like to start by asking you a question about how you found yourself as the lead English commentator for Italian football. I can remember a few years back when I first heard yourself and Richard Whittle’s voice and I was super-excited by the fact that Serie A was committed to providing English commentary of their games across the world. Not only did they provide us with English commentary, but also the commentators were professional, knowledgeable and most importantly entertaining! How did you find this gig?

Paul Visca: The adventure starts from a decision I took as a teenager after I witnessed my father gesticulating to the factory he worked in that I would strive to find employment I enjoyed; so, off I set until I reached Milan, the hub of sports broadcasting in Italy, at the turn of the millennium. I came across a job advert for English-mother tongue sports enthusiasts interested in Italian football. I applied and voilà, or as they say in northern Italian ‘toh’, here I am.

12 Yards: Many viewers are interested to know whether you are commentating in the stadium or from a central studio?

 Paul Visca: Why unveil the illusion? Now you see me, now you don’t. The truth is I don’t move from the comfort of my own smartphone and simply pre-empt the flood of tweets from enthusiasts’ world-wide every Serie A match.

12 Yards: A black-eye for Italian football seems to be the lack of modern stadia throughout the country. When these archaic stadiums are being flashed on television screens across the globe alongside modern stadiums in England, Germany, and France, the Serie A loses credibility and more importantly very often reduces the sense of atmosphere in the stadium to the viewer. Beyond that, attendance has been dwindling for many years because of this very reason; can you explain to the casual viewer why Italian stadiums seem to be so behind in comparison to the rest of Europe.

Paul Visca: One major issue is that the stadia are owned by the local authorities who lease the grounds to the clubs, which results in the situation that the clubs are reluctant to spend their hard earned cash on renovating structures that do not belong to them. Juventus have been the first to take act of this situation by building their own stadium, after some useful financing from central tax funds, however. (Torino were not so fortunate.) The Della Valles at Fiorentina and Garrone at Sampdoria are threatening to leave Florence and Genoa in order to avoid the red tape that has halted any attempt to follow in Juve’s footsteps. Bureaucracy in Italy is stifling, to the point that even knocking down a wall in one’s own house requires official documents to be assessed, verified, stamped, re-verified and re-stamped. Imagine the planning of infrastructure over and above the building of the stadium itself- enough to keep a local authority clerk in a job for centuries.

However, another aspect which cannot be overlooked is the paradoxical promotion of pay-per-view matches which is supported by the clubs to get their hands on the mountain of cash from television rights and in order to keep the TV broadcasters happy the less people who go to the stadium, the higher the number for TV subscriptions.

Lastly, as can be seen with the Bologna case, there is not that much money circulating. And here I must confess I don’t understand elitist thinkers like Milan’s vice president Adriano Galliani who are determined that the top four or five clubs take a disproportional slice of the TV earnings. This process, taken to its logical conclusion, will see Milan, Inter, Juve and Roma (if they manage to find a buyer) play a mini-tournée to decide who is Campione d’Italia.

12 Yards: Which is your favorite stadium in Italy to watch or even call a football game and why?

Paul Visca: The San Siro – no longer a five-star stadium for UEFA (Galliani and Moratti are at work though to make improvements so that the city hosts the Champions League final in 2015 to coincide with the worldwide Expo in Milan) – is still a magnificent stadium both to commentate and watch a game from.

12 Yards: Results are starting to show that the Old Lady of Italian Football is on the rise and will return to prominence very soon. With a young talented squad, a front-office who seem to have their house in order and a brilliant new stadium to open next year, is Juventus on track to returning to their rightful place as a world-class club and brand?

Paul Visca: I have one major reservation over this Juventus project: their embracing of the Triad. Andrea Agnelli has stated he respects Luciano Moggi – does this include the practice of winning at all costs no matter the method? Captain Del Piero has declared he regards the two league titles stripped from Juve as rightfully his (I agree that the 2006 Scudetto should not have been and not be assigned). Vice-captain admitted he first met Andrea Agnelli through Moggi. Juventus want to win and feel they must win, but please not at the cost of the sport itself again. Another system irrespective of whether the clubs involved are Juventus, Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina that guarantees a certain degree of success to the detriment of the other teams would paralyse football here. My hope therefore is that the club seems to be getting itself in order both on and off the pitch and that it continues to do so while respecting the sporting ethos. Delneri has inculcated in a short time a sense of belonging to the Bianconeri cause, the players have a burning desire to win, which is worth more than having the most gifted squad in the league.

12 Yards: Moving to the capital: At the peak of Roma’s poor start to the season, 12 Yards posted an article, which argued that Francesco Totti needed to take a back-seat and recognize his place in the Roma squad. Totti was possibly sabotaging Roma’s season by putting the pressure on Ranieri and not allowing him to do his job due to his own expectation that the club was to be carried on his shoulders. I’m going to ask you a bold question: is Roma a better squad with or without Francesco Totti in their starting eleven?

Paul Visca: Starting premise: A fully-fit Totti is still one of the most gifted and entertaining footballers in circulation. However, he is the same age as Alessandro Del Piero, who in Serie A Round 16 came on in the final 10 minutes against Lazio and made a nuisance of himself for the Lazio defence. The same weekend, Totti played from the kick-off and had the injury situation not been as difficult for Claudio Ranieri, the talismanic captain would still have probably played from the start. This shows that as much as Del Piero is Juventus, Totti is Roma even more. Ranieri has six months remaining on his contract, Totti five years. As can be seen from the coach’s outbursts on television this season, it is Ranieri who is feeling the stress while Totti jaunts around filming his latest mobile phone service provider commercial. The club’s need for cash could work in Totti’s favour as well: Vucinic sold in January to lessen the competition for places up front to the point that the club captain, leader, legend becomes a bane of the team.

12 Yards: What is your take on Max Allegri’s revolution in Milan? Can this new 4-3-1-2 system with three bulldogs in the middle find the consistency to finally bring the Scudetto back to the red side of Milan and maybe even the top of Europe come May?

Paul Visca: Allegri has had the fortune to find his boss in the middle of a political battle that sees Berlusconi fighting for his position as the country’s Alpha Male (who would dare strip him of the title?) and as a consequence Mr. B has been content to accept a winning team despite the lack of champagne football he demands. Allegri now appears so convinced he needs three hard runners in midfield that with the return of Pirlo he’s dropped Seedorf for Boateng. With the considerable help Ibrahimovic is contributing to the Rossoneri cause, the Scudetto seems likely, although a long Champions League run could go against them because those players who seemed good enough only to appear in a Panini sticker album at the start of the year and who now resemble their former selves are still all over 30 and will eventually feel the pace of competing at the top. The top European prize I think is beyond them because their football is still too slow compared to the continent’s finest.

12 Yards: Beyond the big four, there are some entertaining sides in Italy. Catenaccio is certainly dead. Do emerging sides like Lazio, Napoli, or Palermo have the ability to surprise the peninsula and win the Scudetto in the near future?

Paul Visca: Tell Totti Catenaccio is dead. Joking aside, I don’t think Lazio have the strength and depth of squad to last the season and as mush as Edi Reja is a fine coach, his team seems satisfied with a share of the points too often. Also, the longer the Biancocelesti stay at the top of the table, the more attractive those players out of contract in June become.

Napoli on the other hand have that winning mentality. Mazzarri has the right dose of the showman about him to have won over the demanding Neapolitan support and if President De Laurentiis can convince another couple of talented players that the garbage problem in the city is temporal then there is the making of a true title challenger. The film producer owner has already underlined his intent not to sell the club’s talent by holding on to Hamsik and Lavezzi, while the capture of Cavani was excellent business – as it seemed to be also for Palermo. Yet, this highlights the opposing philosophies of the two clubs. Zamparini sometimes comes across as a horse trader rather than a president of a football club aiming to win trophies. This said, the gnarly Friuliano has bought some immense talent, such as Ilicic and Pastore, all of which has meant that Palermo this season have produced some scintillating football.

12 Yards: I would love your opinion on a great debate that I love to ask true Italian football enthusiasts: Who do you feel is the better complete defender and who would you choose to build your team around: Alessandro Nesta or Fabio Cannavaro?

Paul Visca: From Cannavaro’s corpulence nowadays it might be difficult to keep him out of those seven-star restaurants he is dining in to build any team around him and keep the striker still on the field of play. Nesta.

Paul can be heard in the USA on Fox Soccer Channel and in Canada on theScore, TLN, and EuroSport World.