Juventus President Andrea Agnelli is wary of “being caught in the middle” between Europe’s giants and lesser clubs.
The Bianconeri reached the Champions League final in 2015, and have been named among the favourites for this year’s competition, but the patron believes there’s a lot of work to be done.
“We’re proud of what we’ve done over the past five years,” Agnelli said in a Press conference for the shareholders’ meeting, with five Serie A trophies sitting in front of him.
Juventus President Andrea Agnelli is wary of “being caught in the middle” between Europe’s giants and lesser clubs.
The Bianconeri reached the Champions League final in 2015, and have been named among the favourites for this year’s competition, but the patron believes there’s a lot of work to be done.
“We’re proud of what we’ve done over the past five years,” Agnelli said in a Press conference for the shareholders’ meeting, with five Serie A trophies sitting in front of him.
“A special thought goes to those players who contributed to the winning of these five Scudetti, I’m talking about [Gianluigi] Buffon, [Andrea] Barzagli, [Leonardo] Bonucci, [Giorgio] Chiellini, [Claudio] Marchisio, [Simone] Padoin, [Martin] Caceres and [Stephan] Lichtsteiner.
“Those are the eight players who were part of the squad in all those seasons. And of course thanks go to general manager Beppe Marotta, vice-President Pave
Nedved and sporting director Fabio Paratici.
“Juventus live for success, not for the one just achieved, but the next one.
“The major European clubs are taking off in terms of revenue, we’re in the middle ground and Juventus risk being caught in the middle.
“Clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid have announced investments of €1bn in their respective stadia, for example.
“We’ve had significant growth over the years. In the past five seasons our revenue has gone from €172m to €388m, we’ve gone from a €26m loss to a €52m profit.
“My vision in managing a sports team is based on three pillars, with sport first and foremost.
“We got to the final of the Champions League just last year, and the two games with Bayern Munich had as many viewers in China as the final did.
“Our benchmarks are the clubs in the Premier League, the Bundesliga and La Liga. As an example, I’m thinking of Bayern Munich and Bavaria, a region that invests in excellence.
“In Italy there are large organisations like Enel and Eni that don’t even invest in football.
“Then there are clubs that have experience rapid growth like Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, two well-managed clubs in sporting and commercial terms.
“The board’s plan for the next four years gives me confidence, and I can say it will leave Juventus in a position of national and international competitiveness.”
Agnelli then discussed his vision for the future.
“There has been an economic growth of 25 per cent, so this is a growing sector and there’s no crisis.
“When we talk about the television market, the Premier League has seen an increase of 71 per cent, La Liga a cumulative 50 per cent, the Bundesliga 83 per cent. The Serie A rights have increased by 20 per cent, which is significant but certainly not on the level of the other top European Leagues.
“Then if we consider the renewal of shirt sponsorships of the major European teams, they show an increase of 75 per cent. That shows that football is still growing.
“We can’t ignore foreign markets like China, which is making big investments. Even in the west though, there are numbers which make you think, like Major League Soccer having revenues of €600m per year, comparable to the big European Leagues.
“So we have to look east and west. We’ve been operating in a continuous and constant way in China with the Supercoppa.
“We’ve signed commercial agreements and we’ve sent our legends to play there. Some of the fruits of what we’ve done in China can be seen on the balance sheet.
“We’ll discuss the American market in 2017.”