I understand you're disdain for Inter, and I share it, but there must be some middle ground....no?

There needs to be balance witihn the squad as a whole. Juve are a good example of a big club with a good use of homegrown players. Italians like De Ceglie, Chielini, Legrotaglie, Molinaro, Marchisio, Marchionni, Giovinco, Del Piero playing alongside good quality straneri like Sissoko, Amauri, Nedved etc. For me it is not a problem to have foreign players so long as their is balance. At Lazio we have Rocchi, Foggia, De Silvestri, Mauri who play often, but I believe it is important that more youth players are brought through like Tuia and given the opportunity to play regular football so Italy continues to produce very good national teams.

However, I believe foreign players are very important to the Italian game also, they help make Calcio what is has been and what it is today, fantastic. Players like Van Basten, Maradona, Nedved, Salas, Zidane and Kaka have help made Serie A a world class league, just as players like Baresi, Nesta, Pirlo and Baggio have done as well. 

This is the very idea that is destroying football. Higher exposure will of course lead to more internationals, and therefore there will be more competition, producing better players, but it will cease to be Italian Championship football. I guess it makes sense with your pathetic ideology for there to be no national leagues?

It was my 'ideology' and not his so if u cant understand it call me pathetic, not him. I understand your point of view, as we have an even bigger problem with it in England. When was the last time England did anything in a major tournament? Italy on the other hand won the last world cup and are always competitive. The majority of Italian teams have a healthy group of quality Italian players. Juventus, Udinese, Rioma, Atalanta, Palermo to name but a few. Indeed, the current two top scorers in Serie A are Italian, (Di Vaio, Gilardino), and some of the best performances given this season have been by Italian players like Del Piero, Floccari, Aquafresca and it is only natural that the latter two will move on to bigger clubs in Italy in time to grow in stature.  I find your 'ideology' unproven, especially as the only team you mentioned was Inter who have always had more international players than most. International players in any league is nothing new and has been going on for years and years, and it has not really changed the mannor in which the Italian teams play on the continent, i.e. more defensive and technical than most, and the esteem that the league and teams are held in worldwide.

Let's not forget that Lazio has a very good vivaio (youth squad) and we are producing some good players - though some (i.e. Rusotto etc.) have been signed at a very young age to huge clubs - forgot the name of the kid that was recently nabbed from our youth system at 16 by ManU. I'm not sure what "ideologies" are at play here, i would call them philosophies. You can have a strictly domestic league with domestic players, but the abscence of internationals would most likely hurt the economic viability of the league and cause many of the best Italian players to go elsewhere in search of teams who would pay huge contracts. This is the kernel of the problem, the league, and footblall and pro sports in general has become overly concerned with money. You could limit the number of foreign players but in Europe, you can't prohibit EU citizens from working in any other EU nation - so it would have a negligible impact. I suspect some of you don't care for the EU in the first place but that's a done deal, whether you like it or not. Not to mention that it seems every South American seems to dig up a European ancestor and secure an EU passport!

BTW and as a bit of an aside, the traditional sense of nationality in Europe (and specifically Italy, is dead). For better or worse (and I see positives and negatives) what it means to be English, Italian, French etc. has been largely obliterated.  The idea that teams should somehow represent the ethnic and national character of their regions or cities is hopelessly unrealistic and even romantic.  As sort of outsider (I'm a son of Italian immigrants) there are many things i like about italy, i go all the time, but modern Italians seem to be very quick to abandon all of their traditions in favour of some stale souless modern ultra-consumerist society. Sadly, it is amidst the emigrant community of 30+ years ago that one finds some of the traces of the best aspects of traditional Italy which remain.

I think teams not representing the region they come from take something away from the game.. look at Rangers and that other Glasgow team  they both won european cups with all Scottish line-ups .. signing poor foreign players cost the Scots teams dear .. especially Dundee Utd and Aberdeen who thrived with all Scots lineups ... Laziale know what it takes to wear the shirt and there is scope for foreign players who adopt or show Laziale spirit (Nedved, Veron, Mijhailovic) but players from overseas seem to (in general) care less, cost more and are often not as good   .. so why bother?