Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis spoke at the 'Business of Football Summit' organized in London by the Financial Times, focusing on the crisis in football. The club's owner touched on various topics.
De Laurentiis' Words
«Football is sick, because the economy of football is sick. Because leagues and teams are not able to compete financially. The leagues are not productive enough. UEFA says about competitions 'this year in the Champions League we allocate 2.4 billion euros, in the Europa League more than 500 million, and in the Conference League more than 238 million'. I understand, but if all the teams are in debt, it means that this amount of money is not enough. Therefore, this is not sustainable football and with the teams, we also play many games. This way you throw everything up in the air. you end up not attracting the audience anymore».
De Laurentiis was then interviewed by journalist James Fontanella-Khan and expressed his views on the current state of football: «It should be free for everyone. If you want to regain the audience, you have to go on live TV for free. And you as an entrepreneur must be the one who knows how to collect huge advertising. And it also matters how you show football. Not just in stadiums, which in Italy are dilapidated and not comfortable for the audience. I'm also talking about TV: it's not possible that in Formula 1 the images almost make me believe I'm in the driver's seat, and in football, it's not like that. I would like to choose my directors, and I always say that the example of how to broadcast a match is the World Cup final between Argentina and France. Football has also aged as a game».
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