Whichever one thinks is now the best football league in Europe, it is generally accepted that Serie A lags behind La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League. In an interview with the Financial Times, Andrea Agnelli, the 37-year old president of Juventus said, ‘Italian football, as much as Italy, needs structural reforms. In football, you need a concerted effort: violence, stadiums, trademark protections.’
Whichever one thinks is now the best football league in Europe, it is generally accepted that Serie A lags behind La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League. In an interview with the Financial Times, Andrea Agnelli, the 37-year old president of Juventus said, ‘Italian football, as much as Italy, needs structural reforms. In football, you need a concerted effort: violence, stadiums, trademark protections.’
According to Agnelli, England’s Premier League makes about €2bn a year from televison rights, half of that domestic and half foreign. [The foreign proportion is growing, but I would calculate it at much less than a half]. Italian clubs make about €1bn, 90 per cent of which is generated within Italy. Agnelli even admires English advertising boards: ‘You are reading messages in Chinese across all Premier League stadiums.’
Agnellii complains that rather being a final destination for top players, Serie A is now a transit league. Juve’s revenues last year were €214m, less than half Real Madrid’s and Barcelona’s. Net debt at the club has now hit €150m, though the new stadium has recently helped Juventus move into profit.
Of course, the club was badly hit by the Calciopolli match fixing scandal. It was stripped of its championships for 2005 and 2006 and sent down to Serie B. The club argues that it was made a scapegoat for a systemic disorder in Italian football.
Agnelli’s ideal vision for Italy would be a mixture of what is found in England, Germany and Spain. From England he would take the stadium; from Spain, the freedom of big clubs to sell their television rights individually; and from Germany corporate sponsorship.
In Britain and Germany fans pay large sums to buy a team’s new shirts, even third choice kits. ‘In Italy,’ Agnelli says, ‘we buy counterfeit shirts. Fake is a problem of this country.’ There’s a lot to do.