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Campobasso-IFTV Deal Continues U.S. Push Into Italian Soccer

Italian Football TV, a fast-growing social media and online content outlet aimed at North American fans of Italian soccer, will serve as the exclusive content and programming partner for Serie D side SS Campobasso under an agreement that runs through the ’22-23 season.

The agreement comes on the heels of N.Y.-based holding company North Sixth Group acquiring an ownership stake in Campobasso last month. North Six Group Chair Matt Rizzetta is plotting an ambitious global marketing strategy for the Italian club, which will focus specifically on the U.S. and Canada, where Rizzetta notes there are high concentrations of expats from the Molise region of Italy, where Campobasso is located. 

IFTV -- a leader in English-language coverage of Serie A, with over 50 million monthly impressions on its social channels and over 120,000 Instagram followers -- was a natural choice to run Campobasso’s content operation. "IFTV is perfect for the story, the values that the club represents," Rizzetta said. The N.Y.-based outfit has already managed social media campaigns for Serie A sides Sampdoria and Fiorentina, and it partnered with Serie A to promote the league’s summer tour of the U.S. in ’19.

IFTV will have exclusive rights to a range of Campobasso content in North America, including matchday, promotional and original programming. As part of the content agreement, IFTV will produce a behind-the-scenes docuseries akin to HBO’s "Hard Knocks" and Netflix’s "Sunderland ‘Til I Die." The six-episode series, called “Underdogs,” will premier this spring. Starting with “Underdogs,” IFTV creators Marco Messina and Michael Kantaris hope to tell the story of Campobasso’s rise up Italy’s soccer ranks -- the club currently is on track to win promotion to Serie C -- and into the mainstream. Messina and Kantaris believe that story will appeal to American fans.

“Imagine being able to follow the Mets from before they’re even at the top, or in the third division,” Messina said.  

The "Underdogs" series also underscores the Italian club's new ethos. "There’s never been a club of our size that’s really told the story though the lens of the underdogs," Rizzetta said. 

Messina and Kantaris plan to imbue their coverage of Campobasso with the same unconventional style that has made IFTV so popular, which includes interactive livestreams of matches and content based around EA SPORTS’ FIFA video game. “There’s so many people that do the same thing, and we always try to stick out. No one really does what we do,” Kantaris said.

Messina added, "Everything is so corporate, it’s just going back to those roots of being authentic and honest with people."

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