ITALIAN football will always, despite its steady demise in recent years, hold a special place in the hearts of football enthusiasts of my generation.

For we grew up in era when satellite television was only in its infancy and matches from across the globe weren’t, unlike today, broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The internet, meanwhile, was the stuff of science fiction.

The live Serie A games and match highlights shown on the iconic Football Italia programme on Channel 4 every Sunday during the 1990s, then, provided a welcome weekly fix of foreign glamour.

Has anyone either before or since ever had a better job than presenter James Richardson? He seemed to spend his days flicking through copies of La Gazzetta Dello Sport in some street café, nursing a large cappuccino and introducing clips of Franco Baresi, Gabriel Batistuta, Alessandro Costacurta, Gianluca Vialli and George Weah weaving their magic. Nice work if you can get it.

At the time, Italian club football had no equal, not in England, not in Germany, not in Spain, in Europe. How times change. The decline of AC Milan, Internazionale, Juventus, Lazio, Parma, Roma and Sampdoria has been sad to witness for those of us who marvelled at their excellence and achievements in their youth.

Yes, an outstanding Juve team reached the Champions League final in Berlin two years ago, where they performed well before losing 3-1 to Barcelona. But that was a rarity. There were also specific reasons for their success that season which I will come to later.

So what has been responsible for their spectacular fall from grace in the new millennium? A failure to invest properly in youth development? A lack of adequate training facilities? A dip in the quality of player coming through. No, none of that.

Remarkably, it is their antiquated stadiums, the decaying edifices of the Stadio delle Alpi, Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Stadio Olimpico and the San Siro, which have, to a large degree, been to blame for Serie A being overtaken both on and off the park by their counterparts in the Bundesliga, Premier League and La Liga in recent years.

The match day experience is not, unless you happen to be a member of the Boys San, Brigades Gialloblu or Irriducibili ultras groups, a particularly enjoyable experience. Many supporters, and families in particular, stay away.

The number of people watching games in half-full arenas, where the atmosphere can often be decidedly flat, on television at home has also dwindled due to armchair fans turning to see row upon row of empty seats and promptly switching off.

As a result, Italian clubs’ match day income, from corporate hospitality in particular, is significantly less than in the other “Big Five” leagues. Their all-important broadcasting deal, too, is a fraction of what the top flight in England can command.

So how have Juventus managed to halt the slide? Simple. They constructed a new ground. The 41,507 capacity Juventus Stadium, built on the site of the delle Alpi at a cost of €155 million, has dragged the Turin club into the 21st century. It is no coincidence their sporting fortunes have improved dramatically since.

Roma could soon experience a similar resurgence. They are scheduled to move to the 52,000 seater Stadio della Roma, only the second privately owned ground in Italy after the Juventus Stadium, which has been constructed at a cost of €300 million in 2019.

The sorry experiences of Italian football should serve as a stark warning to the Scottish game. The sport has changed beyond recognition during our lifetimes and that transformation promises to continue in the coming years. Our clubs must adapt in order to avoid being left even further behind.

To that end, it is vital that Aberdeen’s ambitious plans for a new 20,000-capacity £50 million stadium at Kingsford on the outskirts of the city are accepted in 2017 if they are to maintain the progress which they have made under Derek McInnes in the last few years.

Aberdeen extended their winning run to five games with a 3-0 dismantling of Dundee in a Ladbrokes Premiership game at Pittodrie on Friday evening. The team are playing very well again and scoring freely and have every chance of completing a hat-trick of second place finishes despite the return of Rangers to the league this term.

However, the meeting last week once again provided evidence that Pittodrie has had its day. It is tired, run-down in places and ill-equipped to cope with the demands of the modern game. The less said about the inadequate surrounding infrastructure the better.

Many Dons fans are opposed to the move and have been since leaving was first mooted some 15 years ago. Pittodrie is undoubtedly their spiritual home, a place they love, the scene of so many of their past glories. But their chances of enjoying any more in the future will be seriously jeopardised by remaining there.