While France is experiencing a real revolt against the LFP, the broadcaster DAZN, the re-elected president Vincent Labrune and also some Ligue 1 club leaders, Italy is following suit. Faced with major economic and infrastructure problems, Italian football is also terrified when imagining its future. At the head of the revolution, Aurelio De Laurentiis, president of the Napoli club, is leading a fight to wake up the authorities and has thus sounded the alarm on the subjects of several concerns affecting Calcio. On board the MSC World Europa, partner of the Campania club, the Neapolitan president spoke about television, radio and the transition from analogue to digital. All contextualized with the presentation of the schedule of Radio Crc, the broadcaster partner of Naples for the current season, looking beyond, as he often does when thinking about the future of Italian football. A subject that the president of Naples has put in the spotlight in his fights.
“When I hear that UEFA is about to launch tenders for TV rights for the periods 2027/2030 and 2030-2033, I think that in total blindness we have given the rights to our local platforms until 2029. This means that next time, in a few months, the gentlemen of UEFA will do bingo by depriving themselves of their rights for two periods of three years, there will be no more possibility of subsidizing Italian football. This means that the teams in the top 6-7 will be able to participate in European tournaments and try to survive, all the others will die in one fell swoop“, he first explained. If Italian football is adrift on several points (stadiums, training, ecosystem), this phenomenon is finally generalizing to several countries and other major championships. France has obviously experienced a long period of arm wrestling between the Professional Football League (LFP) and the various channels for the call for tenders.
A new idea put on the table
To avoid other episodes as harmful and dangerous in France as in Italy, the Neapolitan president proposed a new idea that breaks completely with the conservatism of these platforms considered outdated by De Laurentiis: “In my opinion, we should get out of these agreements with platforms that I consider to promote only the international matches that concern them. Those who only have the national championship do not promote for which we have 25 million fans for Serie A and unsuccessful results for the presences on the platforms. Unfortunately my colleagues follow me only in part: I have always been an entrepreneur, they tell me that I am a visionary, but I am tired of hearing that. It is nonsense. I know the markets. It is different. Our people from the League have not been able to sell the rights of Serie A abroad, it is an ignominy, they have been destructive” he said. As a reminder, more than a month after the start of Serie A, the Italian Lega has still not sold its domestic broadcasting rights in certain countries including France.
Moreover, the writing of French Football Weekly devoted a large file to you a few months ago on DAZN Italy which is not unanimous in Italy either. It is in this sense that Aurelio De Laurentiis hopes to push to redesign the way of consuming football on the virtual: “In 2008, for Napoli-Panionios in Intertoto, I asked Sky to have channel 251 to broadcast the matches because all the other televisions told me they would never broadcast a match like that. I spoke to them, very offended, and proposed the pay per view, which was a fantastic success: I virtualized the stadium with a ticket for 10 euros. We also did it with the friendly matches this summer, which are not of interest to the broadcasters. In the past with Sky and Mediaset, this year with OneFootball, which is a platform on which we must think for the Serie A of the future“, detailed the Italian businessman. The popular discontent is also felt among our transalpine friends. The time has come for modernism for ADL.
