The new sponsorship agreement with Socios.com? “After 26 years of historical ties with Pirelli, we are moving on to a digital partnership, which testifies to the expansion of the fan base internationally”. The 2020-2021 budget closed on 30 June last? “It will record a significant loss, it was the first full year in which we suffered the effects of Covid, about 70-80 million less than stadium revenues, so we hope – health protection permitting – with the new season a reopening of the plants with the use of the green pass. Otherwise it would be a new heavy blow to be absorbed ».
The popular shareholding project launched by Carlo Cottarelli with Interspac? «We see positively all the initiatives promoted by our fans but it is too early to enter into the merits of the project. When a clear business plan is provided, it will be necessary to understand if it can be considered functional by the owners, who have always supported and will support the club in the long term. In addition, today we already have a minority shareholder, Lion Rock. I don’t see it easy to achieve in the corporate context ». Alessandro Antonello is the Corporate CEO of Inter and with Radiocor he addresses the club’s main economic and financial issues, including the refinancing of the two bonds for a total of 375 million maturing in 2022, which “will be replaced with another bond issue by the end year”.
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“Thanks to the new Global Main Jersey Partner Socios.com, to Lenovo as back sponsor and Global Technology Partner and to the possibility of a sleeve sponsor, we aim to raise about 30 million a year for the shirt, a significant increase compared to the past and an important result these days ”, explains Antonello, who underlines how Socios.com, whose CEO Alexandre Dreyfus called the Inter shirt «the perfect space», is «the market leader of fan tokens, a digital tool that will greatly help fan-club interaction. An important element from an international perspective, also given the strong growth of our brand, which will also allow Asian fans to be an active part of the club’s life ».
From the point of view of the accounts, Antonello confirms the goal of cutting the cost of personnel by 15-20% (325 million between depreciation and salaries) with a credit balance for the transfer campaign of 80 million in cash. “At the end of the transfer market we will do the math,” he explains, underlining that the priority is to arrange redundancies and loans and only afterwards will it be possible to consider whether to propose to the players a flat reduction of the Juventus model salary. The two bonds for a total of 375 million maturing in 2020 will be refinanced by December, “we are in the exploratory phase”, and then the 50 million revolving credit line will also be renegotiated.
This in the face of a very delicate situation in the European football system, highlights the manager, with 15-20% of clubs at risk of default: “For this reason the stadiums must reopen but the football industry, although affected by the pandemic, must also make self-criticism and reform ”. In this sense, the Superlega project «was a cry of alarm, but it had to be shared with Uefa and Eca. We as Inter were not extremists and when the English clubs abandoned the project the very nature of the format failed and we immediately decided not to proceed ».