In 1992 Channel 4 acquired the rights to broadcast Serie A in the United Kingdom, paying £1.5m for coverage for the 1992–93 season. "Football Italia" was started as a response to several factors: the English top-flight was no longer on free-to-air terrestrial television but on BSkyB, England star player Paul Gascoigne had transferred to Lazio, and S4C's European football programme Sgorio had good ratings. Italy's Serie A contained many of the world's best players, with its clubs paying spectacularly high transfer fees. The quality of English football was seen as lower, partly due to its 1985–90 ban from UEFA competitions, brought on by hooliganism.