I would not like to go into the merits of Silvio Vella’s line of reasoning (Serie A losing its appeal, TMID, 28 November) as to why he believes interest in the Italian football league is diminishing. I beg to disagree with his suppositions, because I think that Italian football is still one of the most watched leagues in the world and, this year, the competition is proving to be very tight.

We have seen some great matches too and, to put it bluntly, Mr Vella also contradicts himself later in the same article when he wrote that, unlike in England, where the premiership race is restricted to four teams, in Italy there are eight teams who can challenge for the championship. This makes a league much more interesting.

But this is not the purpose of my letter. Mr Vella is entitled to an opinion, which I respect, but when it comes to facts, he stands to be corrected. He wrote that Milan were the “only Italian side to reach the semi-finals since 2003”. Well, Mr Vella, Milan won that year’s competition by beating another Italian side, Juventus, in the final, after having eliminated another Italian side, Inter, in the semi-finals.

And Milan did not only reach the semi-finals since then. They have made it to the final twice, in 2005 and 2007, losing the first time and winning the second against Liverpool.

Is Mr Vella’s memory too short to remember? Mr Vella is an avid Bundesliga follower and so my question for him would be – how many German teams made it to the final since 2003?

I’m sure he needs no prompting to tell me that no German team made it past the quarter-finals since then.

Luke Borg

San Gwann