Monza CEO Adriano Galliani and Sassuolo’s Giovanni Carnevali shared their thoughts on the prospect of reducing Serie A to 18 teams. The pair were quizzed about potential changes to the league ahead of a meeting of the the Lega Serie A Assembly; An assembly that will see on the table as main topics the vote for the approval of the reform document presented, and the discussion on reducing the number of teams in the league.
Among the first to arrive was Adriano Galliani, CEO of Monza, who commented on the possibility of reducing the teams: “What do I expect from today’s meeting? I don’t know, I was thinking about Sunday’s match with Milan, we’ll talk about today’s after. It will be a delicate, particular, difficult day. Definitely not beautiful, we’ll see.” Then, on the issue of the number of participants in the championship, and especially the issue of the right to consultation: “18 or 20 teams? The problem is another: the right to consultation or no right to consultation. It is very serious to ask that the League no longer has the right to consultation. It’s something that has never existed and has never existed in any European country. In all countries in Europe, all football leagues have the right to consultation. It’s incomprehensible how one can ask for it to be removed. 18 or 20 teams are one of the many things… when you no longer have the right to consultation, you can play with 20, 18, 32 teams. Someone can decide that only blondes, the beautiful play and not the ugly, you decide and decide to pass it on to others. It’s unbelievable.”
Finally, Galliani also commented on the Papu Gomez issue, currently suspended for doping: “Unfortunately, the hearing has been moved from the 12th to the 19th, we received the news yesterday from Spain that it won’t be today but next week. Apparently, delays don’t only exist in Italy.”
Then, Sassuolo’s CEO Carnevali also had his say: “What do we expect from today? Nothing special. Serie A with 18 teams? We are definitely in favor of 20, but that’s not the problem. The problem is reforming football a bit with new opportunities, new systems. I think it’s limiting to talk about 18 or 20 teams; that’s not our problem, there are other issues. We need to start solving the problems within ourselves.”
