De Laurentiis’ show in the Senate: “Politics doesn’t stop violence in stadiums because fans are votes”
The President of Napoli: "We need a Serie A with 18 teams, the government must intervene directly"
ROME – Read the hearing and Aurelio De Laurentiis on the same Senate agenda and the “show“. The president of Napoli, with his usual verve, spoke about the political management of Italian football: from the format of the championships, to the financial problems to violence in the stadiums. Regarding this, De Laurentiis accused past governments of a real connivance of interest. “To invest in stadiums, we must also see a “cleaning” of the fans. In England the hooligans have been kicked out. Here we have conditioning fans who can dictate limiting laws regarding attendance at the stadium. When I posed the problem to the politicians, I was stunned, I was told: look, the fans go to the stadium and we can’t govern them because they represent votes. This is very serious, it represents an admission of weakness of the State, it also means admitting the crime inside the stadium, so much so that the fans who go to the stadium consider it free ground that belongs to them. It is inconceivable.”
“I’m sorry to point out that politicians in general believe that the Government should not be interested in football in economic terms. Or rather that the Government itself cannot create the conditions that can eliminate the billions of debts that football accumulates every year We are not asking for money, but legislative changes that allow our sector to recover economic and financial energy“, he continued.
SERIES A WITH 18 TEAMS
“We allowed total chaos in going from 16 teams to 18 and then 20 from 1986. But the matches passed and will pass, until the new championship, at 75/80. The players will be worn out because, for those who arrive until the end, there will be such wear and tear that the following year that champion will probably have to stay in retirement and not participate with the same physicality, preparation and mind in the next championship. The income will not be commensurate with this amount of energy wasted where only the football institutions will bring home an economic result on our shoulders and on our investments. So what to do? The Serie A League will never have the strength to reduce the number of teams government which must take note that from the next championships the number of teams must be ‘the government needs to understand this, everything else is rubbish.”
THE DEBTS OF ITALIAN FOOTBALL
“We would like the government to establish a weighted vote in favor of the 6-8 clubs that are crucial for the establishment of a championship, because otherwise it would not stand up. We cannot continue we 6-8 companies to accumulate debts. We in Naples closed the balance sheet with a profit of 83 million, but with what effort? Not being able to invest in plant engineering, in nurseries, having to exist in a difficult political hub like that of the South, certainly not helped by those from the North. These 6-8 companies with the majority would create the conditions of greater economy from which the smaller teams would also benefit but they must trust because otherwise they always create an obstacle for an extra crumb”.
