FIGC president Gabriele Gravina believes the league needs to question the quality of product they’re offering following a disappointing round of talks relating to TV rights. Gravina was speaking following discussions over the sale of Serie A TV rights earlier this week, and shared his thoughts on the matter:
“The question we have to ask ourselves is whether the quality of the product we offer is right. On this we probably have to make a reflection.”
“It is clear that the offer should also be directly proportional to the quality of the product that is put on the market. We all thought, maybe we were a bit deluded, that the results of Italian teams would give an appeal. But the question we have to ask ourselves about made in Italy, which Italy has, because it has a strength carved in history, is whether the quality of the product we offer is right. On this we probably have to make a reflection on a much broader and more complex project.”
“We live 80 percent on the revenues linked to the rights. Where our world, the one linked to the Figc and all the components by fall, we are minority partners, according to the Melandri law. A damage to the Lega Serie A is a damage to the whole football system. We not only support but want to be protagonists in this path. We are available to discuss with the league, assigning it Golden shares and everything the League deems appropriate to improve the quality of this product.”
“Football, not being excluded from the phenomenon of globalization, is subject to continuous market tensions at the international level. It is unfortunate that we can only follow the flow of money.”
“Rooting to the territory and belonging to the clubs is being lost, there is a market of players who want to convey athletes more and more, releasing them from contractual commitments in exchange for economic benefits. This blows up the schemes. For someone like me who loves the dimension of the world other than the economic one, and that is the one that is giving us strength of design in this period, it is clear that this is not a path I share, but unfortunately it must be taken into account.”
