Serie A Clubs Form Their Own Premiership

Italian football clubs look likely to adopt the English Premiership model after 19 of the 20 Serie A clubs voted to break away from the Lega Calcio. The underlying issue is television rights. Serie A clubs sell their rights individually, rather than collectively, which means that the biggest sides such as Juventus or AC Milan earn in excess of £85m for their domestic rights, while smaller clubs, such as Chievo, only receive around £4m. In exchange for this arrangement, Serie A clubs contribute a lump sum to their counterparts in Serie B. This amounted to £90m – about 20 per cent of the television revenue until last year – and was negotiated down to £60m for this season. Because each club’s contribution was proportional to the of their television deal, Serie A clubs went along with the status quo. It did not cost the smaller clubs very much and allowed the bigger clubs to continue enjoying big broadcasting deals.

From the 2010-11 season Serie A rights will be sold collectively as is also the case in the Premiership and most other European countries. This will mean a more equal distribution of television revenues. That is why big clubs have been negotiating to further reduce and eventually eliminate the Serie B contribution. When negotiations stalled, Serie A decided to break away. It’s a big blow for Serie B clubs who on average lost £5m last season even with the £90m contribution from Serie A. For a long time many Serie B clubs have lived above their means. They have paid wages comparable with those in the Coca-Cola Championship despite the fact that average attendance is about a third as high and stadium revenues one tenth of those in the English second tier. Serie A clubs feel that they simply cannot afford to continue bankrolling the lavish spending habits of Serie B sides. It seems likely that a settlement will not be reached and Serie A will break away. It looks as if the green light for this has already been given by the FIGC, the Italian FA.

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