Juventus” data-scaytid=”1″>Juventus President Andrea Agnelli wrote an open letter to shareholders discussing club finances, changing Italian football and Antonio Conte’s exit.
“Dear Champions of Italy,” began the letter published on the Juventus website.
Juventus President Andrea Agnelli wrote an open letter to shareholders discussing club finances, changing Italian football and Antonio Conte’s exit.
“Dear Champions of Italy,” began the letter published on the Juventus website.
“This balance sheet up for your approval marks a crossroads in the recent history of Juventus. It is an important step in a journey, which began in May 2010, of reconstruction and of a new phase of development.
“The ingredients that contributed to this turnaround are multiple, but can be summed up in a profound managerial revolution that brought sport back to its natural central role, maintaining a constant effort to bring in new revenue and control costs.
“The challenges that we will face in the next few years are even more demanding. If in Italy the return to being competitive has brought a run of three consecutive Scudetti, the fundamental economics of our international competitors face us with an evident truth: the gap with the best European clubs remains elevated and the gap must be reduced if we are to aspire to results in line with our international history.
“From the start of my mandate I signalled the need and urgency to enact structural reforms of the ‘system.’ Everything changed in the way Juventus is controlled, but almost nothing on the national stage.
“Our work and profound renewal therefore reaches a formidable limitation in the lack of overall development in Italian football. Changing this state of affairs is a complex operation that is of the utmost urgency if we are to achieve our objectives.
“The Juventus Stadium, of which we are proud, remains the only example of a sporting structure at the vanguard, capable of representing a model of security and an experience of the top level both ‘live’ and on television.
“Unfortunately, this is just 1/20th of the potential of Italian stadiums. It’s not enough for the collective sport to make a decisive step forward.
“The development of new infrastructures is the crucial issue of the next five years, during which Italian football must choose between being internationally competitive, both on the field and in its increase of revenue, or being pushed to the margins, something that today seems inevitable.”
Agnelli also urged the Lega Serie A to “reappropriate its leadership role, cleaning out a level of argumentative debate and lack of transparency that is frankly no longer acceptable.”
He called for a reduction of the number of professional clubs and a revision of the squads to guarantee a certain number of Italian players and the introduction of B-Teams.
Finally, Agnelli discussed the group of people who worked with the club over the last four years, including ex-Coach Antonio Conte.
“All of us thank him, but he decided for himself a new professional path. Our effort today is to support a new Coach: Massimiliano Allegri, a winner who has already brought to us new passion and a new desire to take on everyone and everything.”