President Andrea Agnelli discussed the way European football has changed and how Juventus are working to keep up with the times.
The Agnelli family have owned the club for almost a century and the current President sat down with Sky Sport Italia for an in-depth interview.
“I am profoundly tied to the city of Turin, we made big investments in the area and I, Juventus and the group I represent will continue to collaborate with the institutions in the city.
President Andrea Agnelli discussed the way European football has changed and how Juventus are working to keep up with the times.
The Agnelli family have owned the club for almost a century and the current President sat down with Sky Sport Italia for an in-depth interview.
“I am profoundly tied to the city of Turin, we made big investments in the area and I, Juventus and the group I represent will continue to collaborate with the institutions in the city.
“Could we buy a foreign club too? It is certainly a possibility we are evaluating, but it is not the order of the day.”
This week Chinese groups are on the verge of completing takeovers of Inter and Milan, while Roma are run by Americans.
“Compared to the 1990s football clubs have changed enormously. Today the dimension of Juventus is global, a real business that is growing in its revenue, number of employees and brand, while it has achieved stability on a financial and administrative level.
“Asking for an increase in capital every three years would mean running the club badly. The Juventus rapport with (parent company) Exxor is excellent and healthy, but the club does not need continual investment.
“Juventus have completed an extraordinary turnaround operation over the last six years. In one year we halved the debts and the current club is well-equipped to deal with the next three years in Europe and Italy.
“Of course then we’d have to analyse how European football has changed and understand in what arena it will be more important to compete.
“We started the season with a trophy and ended it with another trophy: that is the best thing Juve have done this year.
“Those who are at Juventus must think only of winning, so whether Serie A is competitive or not is something I leave to the journalists.
“Looking at the other Leagues, I think it’s normal to have one club predominantly successful. In Germany there’s Bayern Munich, in France PSG, in Spain the duopoly Real Madrid-Barcelona.
“That is not what counts for us. What’s important to Juventus is winning.”
Many clubs point out the huge difference in revenue streams for Serie A sides compared to the Premier League, Liga and Bundesliga.
“In 2006 there was a breakdown and from that moment on Italian football lost its appeal,” continued Agnelli.
“There were some fundamental chances that were missed on a global level. Just think of how Barcelona or Bayern Munich attract funds on a local and international level.
“Thinking we can emulate what is happening in Germany, England or Spain just because there were ad hoc laws introduced is not enough.
“They can help, but the Italian way to become great again is to start giving some clear directives and understand how the Lega Calcio wants to deal with the immediate future.
“We must try to do like Spain and ‘protect’ its teams. When you want to sell the product abroad, they don’t care about tactics and technique, they want to see goals and spectacular overhead kicks, but to get those you need resources and champions.
“If we want to level the playing field and protect everyone, then let’s not sell a dream to the fans with talk of the Champions League and World Cup.”