Nazionale A

Pre-match show at Maradona excites everyone

A real spectacle at the stadium, where the National team's brand-new theme and mascot, Oscar, were introduced. The pre-match show brought about applause and excitement. Over 550,000 viewers and 60,000 interactions for ‘Vivo Azzurro Live’ and ‘Casa Azzurri Live’: also presented was the film ‘Uomini da marciapiede’. All the National Youth Teams' games to be shown live on the FIGC site. This evening kicks off with the Under 21s at 18:00 CET

Friday, March 24, 2023

Pre-match show at Maradona excites everyone

The match between Italy and England signalled a new era between the National Team and its fanbase, with a pre-match show that sparked excitement and applause for over 8 minutes from supporters in attendance at the stadium. The emotional impact was elevated in those who felt part of the celebration, strengthening the National  team's brand and the positive feeling for the Azzurri fans.

44,500 were in the stands to witness a technological show of lights, colour, and music, from 20:30 to 20:38 CET. Created for the Federation by the Gruppo Alphaomega, in collaboration with Canaid and Light Designer Pietro Toppi, the show captured everyone's attention. It was a show like no other and had never been seen before in a football satdium in Italy, in which innovative technology transformed the athletics track around the pitch at the Maradona into a LED carpet with multimedia content projected, together with lasers on the pitch and videos on the big screens, all accompanied by original music and a brand-new theme tune, named 'Azzurri', composed and produced by Enrico Giaretta and Maurizio D’Aniello for the National team. It was unveiled on January 2 together with the new logo. There was also a moving moment in the show with a remembrance video showing clips on the big screen of former Head of Delegation, and Azzurri legend, Gianluca Vialli, while the younger supporters loved the appearance of Oscar, the Azzurri's new mascot (a Maremma Shephard puppy dog), designed and created by Carlo Rambaldi, who appeared for the first time in the stands. 

SOCIAL MEDIA NUMBERS. The numbers regarding social media interactions on the Azzurri accounts were positive (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube e TikTok) for the game between Italy and England. Italy's first outing in 2023 saw 7.1 million viewers with a share 33.5% on Rai 1. There was also the ‘Vivo Azzurro Live’, the pre-match build-up show hosted by Pierluigi Pardo, and ‘Casa Azzurri Live’, the talk show with 'Gli Autogol' on air during the game: in total, there were 550,000 viewers and 60,000 interactions. Special guests were also in abundance in the two programmes, with Leonardo Bonucci and Giacomo Raspadori from the First Team, as well as the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, Gigi D’Alessio, Clementino and LDA, and former Napoli and National team players Fernando De Napoli and Emanuele Giaccherini. Even more, there was Diego Armando Maradona Junior, Casa Surace and Sal De Riso. During ‘Casa Azzurri Live’, also the comedy film ‘Uomini da Marciapiede’, directed by Francesco Albanese and played by a stellar cast consisting of Paolo Ruffini, Luigi Luciano ‘Herbert Ballerina’, Lucia Di Franco and Clementino was presented.

After the end of the relationship with Rai, the FIGC is proposing special and exclusive content that is looking to further develop its Media Factory, born with the aim of interacting with the Azzurri community before, during and after games through a ‘second screen’, in addition to the traditional match-viewing one. It's an innovative process that will create an OTT, a platform in which all the Federation's exclusive content will be conducted from.

LIVE STREAMING OF ALL YOUTH GAMES ON FIGC.IT. Live streaming of all games involving the National Youth teams and Futsal (5-a-side football) are to be shown this season on the FIGC website. Today at 15:00 CET, it will be possible to watch the first of two friendlies for the Under 16s against Germany, while at 18:00 there's great anticipation ahead of the Under 21s' friendly away to Serbia, which will be shown live for the first time ever exclusively on the Federation's site and social media channels. Their friendly against Ukraine on Monday at 20:00 CEST will also be live, as part of a rich month March that sees 14 games being shown, including the Futsal Under-19 team against Turkey (25 March) and the Under 18s and Under 20s against Romania and Germania, respectively, scheduled for Sunday 26 and Monday 27 March.