There are many reasons to like Venezia. The Venice club’s stadium is a hidden gem, the kits are pure style personified and they even sell swimsuits, not to mention the club hasn’t been shy about signing Americans.
My favorite thing about the club is the team’s take-no-prisoners approach to social media. Whether it’s calling out ESPN or simply trolling haters, Venezia does not back down from a fight on Twitter.
On Saturday, Venezia put its new league on blast in a viral tweet about the club’s ability to share its own highlights.
Every league has its own rules on how highlights can be shared. Some leagues take a laissez-faire approach, allowing videos to be shared at will because the more eyes on the league the better. Others have tight restrictions on when and where highlights are made available, because not pissing off broadcasters/rights holders is more important than giving the fans what they want.
Serie B falls into that latter category, apparently.
Venezia, which was relegated from Serie A last season, ripped into Serie B for its rules limiting when The Winged Ones can publish their own highlights.
Venezia Serie B Tweet
Greed and stupidity chipping away at the game’s soul has no end, but here’s a special edition from Serie B:
We’re not allowed to share match highlights until *eight* days later, by which time we’ll have already played another match.We’d delve into the logic but there is none.
— Venezia FC (@VeneziaFC_EN) July 30, 2022
Eight days to share highlights? What a joke. Eight days is a lifetime in the soccer world.
As someone who often compiles highlights from social media for his job, I much prefer leagues that make it easy to find and share videos. You’d think leagues would want more publicity, and obviously Venezia agrees, promising to continue complaining about Serie B’s rules all season.
We’re going to keep tweeting about this all season until we drive these people crazy, so strap in.
— Venezia FC (@VeneziaFC_EN) July 30, 2022
One could easily argue Venezia is more interested in growing a brand than a club after getting relegated last season in dead last, but they’ve got a point.
Americans will want to check out Venezia highlights this year because the club has four — yes, four! — Americans on the roster for the 2022-23 season. Gianluca Busio was a regular starter in Serie A last season and signed a contract extension through 2025 on Saturday. Midfielders Tanner Tessmann and Jack de Vries will also return while striker Andrija Novakovich signed a four-year deal with the Italian club on July 15, joining from Frosinone.
Gianluca Busio extends contract.
“I wanted to be part of the team that will fight for promotion. There were offers and interest from other places but my heart is in Venice.”https://t.co/Yw22BAWrbF#ArancioNeroVerde ⚫️ pic.twitter.com/5qJlD5lQJi— Venezia FC (@VeneziaFC_EN) July 29, 2022
U.S. TV rights to Serie B are held by Fox, which last year put a few games on its obscure premium channel Fox Soccer Plus and that was about it. Sadly, Fox has no real streaming service of note to air games, so we’ll probably have to rely on clubs to post highlights eight days later to see Busio and Co. in action.
While Busio is the only Venezia player with a legitimate chance to make Gregg Berhalter’s World Cup roster in November, the club is still worth watching, if nothing else for the social media drama and sexy uniforms.
Venezia FC 22/23 collection.#ArancioNeroVerde ⚫️ pic.twitter.com/Q9aB9BFrB0
— Venezia FC (@VeneziaFC_EN) July 26, 2022
