DAZN and Sky will retain the rights to screen live Serie A matches in Italy for the next five seasons after Italian clubs voted in favour of the proposal.
The league meeting ended with 17 votes in favour, one abstention and two clubs against. Afterwards, Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis bluntly expressed his fear of a loss of competitiveness for Italian football compared to their European counterparts.
His words, reported by the Gazzetta dello Sport, were very critical. He said: 'It is a defeat for Italian football, with this offer football will die. For me, the fan is the absolute asset of a football club.
'My relationship must be direct with the fans, not direct with Sky and DAZN. The value of Italian football comes from investments. Sky and DAZN don't invest.'
In the last three years, Serie A has generated some €927.5 million (£809m) per season from the sale of its TV rights in Italy, with DAZN again holding a majority share.
However, the new contract is for five years and will likely stem any financial growth for Italy's top-flight league.
With the new agreement, the Lega Serie A will receive approximately €900million (£785m) per season.
DAZN will still broadcast all 10 championship matches in a matchweek, with seven being exclusive and the last three broadcast by Sky in co-exclusivity with DAZN.
THE IDEA FOR A SERIE A TELEVISION CHANNEL WAS A FLOP
Had the clubs not accepted the downward proposal from DAZN and Sky, the six envelopes which contained the proposals to create a single Lega Serie A channel to then be resold in bulk to the individual broadcasters, would have had to be opened.
This is because six different partners - Carlyle, Pif, Advent, Oaktree and two other secret platforms - had made themselves available to present an offer on this front but evidently the idea, as claimed by the newspaper 'Open' by Enrico Mentana, was not attractive and most likely only served to raise the final price.
DE LAURENTIIS IS AFRAID OF SERIE A'S COMPETITIVENESS ON THE MARKET
According to Napoli chief De Laurentiis, too few fear that Serie A's financial decline could significantly weaken the economic strength of the league's clubs and, thus, furthering the gap between Serie A and the Premier League.
Across the five-year period starting from 2024, additional payments are expected from DAZN but, for De Laurentiis, they are not sufficient to cover the club's growth margin on the market.
The data from the latest transfer market session speak of a collapse in investments across Serie A clubs and an increase in sales of top players abroad.
Serie A only buys when it receives money from the Premier League or Ligue 1. The player market in Italy is a closed system, which rarely attracts investments from elsewhere in Europe.
The Saudi Pro League teams spent a whopping €854.6 million (£785m) and took Sergei Milinkovic-Savic - the best midfielder in the Italian championship - away from Serie A.
On a global level, Serie A has been overtaken by the Premier League, Ligue 1 and Saudi Pro League which has invested a lot of money bringing Marcelo Brozovic and many other top players on the European circuit to Saudi Arabia.
As reported by the Italian financial media, in 2023, the Premier League invested €2.8 billion (£2.4bn), Serie A €854.6 million (£785m) and the German Bundesliga spent €747 million (£651m).
The Spanish La Liga is far behind, in sixth place, with investments of €439 million (£382m).
JUVENTUS, INTER, AC MILAN AND NAPOLI SPEND LESS THAN A LOW LEVEL ENGLISH TEAM
In the 2023 summer transfer window, Juventus' only purchase came in the form of Timothy Weah from Lille for €12 million (£10m).
Inter have brought in Matteo Darmian, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marcus Thuram for free in recent years, while AC Milan had to sell Sandro Tonali for €60million (£52m) in order to strengthen themselves.
Similarly, Napoli chose to sacrifice Kim Min-Jae to Bayern Munich before bringing in Natan and Jesper Lindstrøm. It served as a confirmation that even a club capable of winning the Scudetto must contain their expenses.
TV revenues represent around 80 percent of clubs' fixed revenues per season and without increases, investments in the transfer market will not increase.
Without high fixed revenues from TV deals, and without owning their stadiums, it is difficult for Serie A clubs to maintain competition with the rest of Europe.
Astonishingly, medium and low-level teams in England have spent more than Juventus in recent years and, somehow, have superior economic capabilities compared to all the Italian teams.
Everton, for example, bought Beto from Udinese for £25m - a fee that was too expensive for many Italian clubs. The result is the departure of yet another player who was highly-regarded in Serie A, but one who is yet to establish himself in the Premier League.
shardul7798
0
The problem is not Sky or DAZN not making investments. The issue is that the Italian FA did not advertise Serie A to the rest of the world the way EPL was marketed to the world by the English FA since 1992. Also, the stadiums in Italy are quite old. Not sure how many stadiums were renovated in the last 2 decades. The day time matches in Serie A look like crap on live TV. Who would want to watch that, when they can watch the evening kickoffs? The way a game looks on TV is also something which brings in revenue. I hope the Italian FA starts investing money into rebuilding the stadiums and marketing the league to the rest of the world.
Nickjonz11
1
Serie A literally just had 2 clubs in the final 4 of the UCL... the numbers are badly skewed due to Juventus and their legal issues. The financial problems at Juventus will get sorted especially when they finish in a top 4 spot this year. Milan spent, just on the renewal of Leao and Pulisic and will eventually make a massive profit in Leao. Same with Napoli and Osimhen when they decide to sell and the profit can be used to bring in other stars. Fiorentina and Atalanta even have made huge profits on young talent over the last 4-5 years and continue to become more competitive. Over spending on players doesn't equal success, look at Chelsea for the last several years. This article is nonsense, it should just layout the financial stats but to make an objective opinion sound subjective is funny and you lose credibility.
Wagnewt
0
It's in ICU now 😎😎
CHICKIESMP
0
isn't Italy still in Europe ?
Vetabciktu
1
I don't watch farmers league immaterial to me
royaltyking
0
Serie a players not even that good
bazbdimpu
0
It's Napoli's football, which will die because of their racist tendency. They will surely lose Osmhen and will be shunned by all good foreign players.
sirhtain
2
Italy Series A was already dead one decade before