One thing that the internet age can’t take away from us is nostalgia. If anything, it only leads to harsher pangs for the way things used to be.

For anyone who was brought up watching football in the 1990s, one thing you’ll definitely remember is Football Italia on Channel 4. And it’s hard not to get nostalgic about that.

All football fans will know James Richardson as the host of the Totally Football Show podcast – and erstwhile presenter of the Guardian’s Football Weekly – but in the 1990s, he was the face of Italian football on British TV. Football Italia was suave, sophisticated, and involved envy-inducing ice cream sundaes in the paper round-up on Saturday morning highlights shows.

In the 90s, Serie A was the world’s best league with the world’s best players, and much like the Premier League is perhaps becoming today, the riches were spread amongst plenty of teams who could all call upon some fabulous players: Paul Gascoigne’s Lazio, David Platt and Roberto Mancini’s Sampdoria, and Gabriel Batistuta’s Fiorentina all went toe to toe with the more obviously big Milan, Inter and Juventus.

#Golazzo: The Football Italia Story ️️⚽️????????

The '90s was a golden era for Serie A…

Join @acjimbo and friends at 10pm this Saturday for the latest in the acclaimed BT Sport Films series ???? pic.twitter.com/tpjKKsyAm3

— Calcio on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) March 26, 2018

And BT Sport – now home to Serie A on British TV – are celebrating that fact. Indeed, they’re celebrating it hard. On Twitter, the broadcaster’s ‘Football on BT Sport’ account, used to promote and seed highlights of the games they show, has been changed to ‘Calcio on BT Sport’, as they go all-in to promote their big celebration.

This weekend, the channel will air a 30th anniversary documentary about Football Italia made by Richardson himself, featuring pink newspapers, espressos and, yes, those ornate ice creams!

For so long we’ve talked about short-form content, falling attention spans and the need to capture even 30 seconds of someone’s attention. But we might be starting to see the error of our ways: that attention spans aren’t lower than ever, and that people will spend a long time watching one piece of content if it’s worth it. Now, we’re seeing longer sports podcasts, sporting documentary series on Netflix, Amazon and Facebook, and the arrival of bespoke, long-form content produced around sport.

That development is only to be welcomed, and maybe that too is evidence of nostalgia for a simpler time. The 90s meant waking up for Gazzetta Football Italia was a Saturday morning treat, Jimbo’s newspapers weren’t yet obsolete, and Facebook wasn’t even a glint in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye. And as if to make that abundantly clear, BT aren’t pushing their documentary as on-demand only, but rather an event to tune into on Saturday evening at 10pm.

Long live 90s nostalgia.