The Super League, foreign ownership and football reform in Italy. Many topics touched by the president of the Figc Gabriele Gravina, who spoke at the webinar “The future of Italian football and the managerial challenges that await it” organized by the Bocconi University of Milan. The federal number one started right from the story Super League: “I am very confident regarding the decision of the EU Court on the Superlega, but on this issue the position of the FIGC has been clear from the beginning: we believe that the Superlega, or what it has become today, it is certainly a wrong answer to a problem that exists and is concrete, which concerns the sustainability of the football business at high levels“, reports Football and Finance.
“It is wrong because it deals with the issue of competitiveness only from the point of view of revenues. Basically it’s a perverse logic, we make the biggest pie and then we divide it. This is not the world to address the issue of sustainability at an international level. It is true that we must aim to increase revenues but we must never lose sight of the cost containment policy. I repeat, we say no to the Superlega also because it would mortify our national championships, but yes to a way of improving an international competition while keeping costs under control without thinking only of increasing revenues”.
FOREIGN OWNERSHIP – “Foreign ownership, for Italian football, represents an important added value, both in entrepreneurial terms, because they bring capital and new ideas, but above all because, in managerial terms, they make a significant contribution.
In Europe there are 62 American-owned professional clubs and it is a phenomenon that is constantly growing. Two thirds of these entered Italian football in the last 3 years alone. This shouldn’t scare us, it’s an important novelty for those who manage football clubs. Anyone who knows football, however, knows perfectly well that one cannot detach from the territory of origin because all realities are linked to that by typhus. Emotions do not belong to properties and do not change with them.”
SERIE A LEAGUE – “In the last 20 years, our championship has lost most of its appeal. We must all have a broader and more international vision. Thinking about and putting into practice a serious industrial plan with brand enhancement at the center and anticipating the needs of the fans football in the future. The situation of the value of our TV rights worries us a lot, given that Serie A is the driving force of our movement also because it generates through mutuality. If they were to drop significantly, there would be irreparable damage to the whole sector Italian football”.
EXTENSION OF THE CALL FOR TV RIGHTS PROVIDED BY THE MELANDRI LAW FROM 3 TO 5 YEARS – “It is certainly an excellent thing, but it is useless without a credible project to make it attractive. Sustainability must also be at the center, it will be necessary to balance the relationship between turnover and labor costs which is too disproportionate throughout Europe and in Italy it reaches 90%. Even in the Premier League, from 1992 to today, there have been 64 clubs in receivership. This situation cannot be remedied by the continuous search for money if this is not accompanied by an adequate policy of containment of They have also noticed this in England, where the Premier League is the league with the highest revenues in the world“.
FOOTBALL REFORM IN ITALY – “The system needs an overall reform. It is clear that in order to talk about competitiveness, sustainability and interest, it is necessary to introduce the concept of production chain between the various leagues. As happens in other countries, we will have to begin to create relationships of maximum collaboration. For some months I have been talking about reforms but there is a block in our rules, i.e. the right of agreement which is a disguised veto right. We have to go to the assembly and amend the rule: it is anachronistic that if 3% don’t want to, they can say that Italian football does not change. The idea of being able to act as an accountant on the number of teams thinking of exhausting the path of reforms only by reducing the number of teams is an idea that does not fascinate me. We need a shared project of general reform, which foresees maybe even a different status, perhaps by introducing that concept of semi-professionalism dear to me”.
NEW CHAMPIONS – “It will certainly generate positive effects on one condition only: that the FIGC and all the components feel more responsible in welcoming this new format. It is clear that it requires a new idea in the organization of national domestic formats. We must allow these teams not only not to mortify domestic competition but also to protect the health of the protagonists on the pitch, the players”.