Juventus and Italy captain Giorgio Chiellini insists he is still focused on his playing career but warns that Italian football must change, even by adopting a playoff system in Serie A.
Chiellini’s contract at the Allianz Stadium runs out in 2023, but he will likely leave Juventus in the summer. He could either retire or play for one more season in the MLS.
“As long as you are a footballer, you are only focused on your career. I’ve never thought about anything else,” he told La Stampa newspaper.
“Obviously, I would like to begin a path to becoming a director in the future, to make the most of the experience that I’ve earned during my career and apply it to a different environment.
“I’d like to focus on what’s around the pitch and I have a lot to study. I know this sport well, but it’s not enough to have a role. I know everything about Continassa [Juventus training ground], even where there are spider webs, but I only have a vague idea of what’s going on inside the headquarters.”
Juventus President Andrea Agnelli has recently claimed that Chiellini will have a spot in the control room at the club and the defender seems to have clear ideas on the state of Italian football despite being in no rush to begin a new chapter of his professional life.
“We must change the rules, but overall the mentality,” he said.
“There is too much conservatism in Italy. In the business world, they do things that must be done, but in football, every change is seen as a potential threat.
“Think about stadiums. Everyone knows that we need something different, we need structures that involve families and kids to keep them close to our world. However, you can’t build any, with a few exceptions. There is always a bureaucratic hitch or someone who gets in the way.”
Chiellini is also favourable to changing the league’s format, including play-offs.
“The Serie A format should change. For example, there would be more suspense and unpredictability by introducing play-offs,” he said.
“It would be an extraordinary event which would attract millions of fans. However, new things are scary and in the end, nothing happens. The common target is to keep this passion alive, or we could lose an enormous social heritage.”
Chiellini will likely play his last Serie A game on May 22 away at Fiorentina. The 37-year-old spent one season on loan at Franchi at the beginning of his playing career (2204-05), scoring three goals in 42 appearances, including one against the Old Lady.
This is sad. Pathetic almost. Juve don’t win it two years in a row so now it’s time to make it more exciting die the fans? There is nothing exciting about 9 scudetti in a row. 10 ina row for Bayern. 9 for Celtic efore rangers won but back. Excitement is a league where several teams are in the running every season and different teams win not. Chiellini talks too much
Should also be a rule where injury and error prone, has-been stoppers from a bygone era aren’t allowed to open their mouths.
Here a whole bunch of odd but effective reasons why the premier league is more exciting than Serie A (on TV, at least):
– The camera angles and direction is better
– The commentary is better
– The sound mixing is better (ever noticed how it sounds like a bomb’s gone off whenever anyone touches the ball on Sky Sports)
– The refs are 10000 times better
– The marketing is great and we are sold the drama really well.
Those things have helped build a brand that has now got the EPL to a place where there are so many competitive teams with stadiums full of singing fans (sound mixing again), that the drama is real and palpable.
I watched Samp v Genoa last week which was a great game, and I realised how little Serie A I watch if Milan aren’t involved. The same weekend (I think it was anyway), I went out of my way to watch Liverpool v Newcastle, and I have no vested interest in either team or the league.
Serie A needs to look hard at itself and how it’s doing the basics, but it doesn’t need to look at the USA for inspiration.
💙 🖤 💙 🖤 💪
😘. @Fake Sami using ur false name acting as a Rubentus cheerleader. Get a life loser and go suk on ur dad’s ba***.
I’m not a Juve fan either but Chiellini expressed good ideas. Need to skip for a while the feeling of being for or against some teams. We must focus on the game and make it attractive for more people and generations. Look at Firenze. Will and possibility to build a new stadium but all the time some bureaucratic crap (or corruption) appears. Milano faced similar problems.
Some kind of play-off system might be a good idea, but I think there are too many and old strong bull-heads who do not want changes and are willing to terminate any new ideas.
Win the regular season by 20 points, then lose the title in a single game in a penalty shootout.
Yeah, sounds like a brilliant idea.
With all due respect to him as a player, he should not go into management as he’s talking nonsense
@Sebbyde Chiellini’s club are by far the most successful winners of the league. If he was trying to make it easier for his club to win it, why would he want to change anything? They have won 8 out of the last 10 seasons! A play-off system would be very different. Giving a greater number of clubs a very real possibility of winning. It would create an exciting end to the tournament every season. The marketing/promotion potential is significant. But as Chiellini said, the mentality around football is too conservative. Petty rivalries and suspicious/paranoid minds are a block to progress in Italy
@Ciro. Yes, those things. Just because they’re not obvious football things doesn’t make them irrelevant. Their subtlety is a)what’s genius about them and b) why you’re shooting them down as not being ‘football’ enough.
@pap_frezz i agree with you. 1 more good commentators who make the game exciting to watch. i have seen Italian commentators doing commentary in English, when their command of the language is week… This kills the drama. This was the same in the 90s when the league was filled with superstars the commentary ,sound effect camera angle was just poor… diluting the final product. Fist work on the basics then the stadiums.
As an American fan of Serie A, I’m a bit curious why ideas like Chiellini’s haven’t gotten more traction. Leaving sporting merit aside, playoffs make absolutely ridiculous amounts of money for the major North American sports leagues. Serie A could certainly use more money.
When you won the league in 8 consecutive years even with the help of referee and FA did you ever consider a playoff? Simply because you’ve been chased out of the top three for 2 straight years and you don’t know how long it will take for Juventus to be among the top three again. But it’s not about you winning the league for 8 uninterrupted years but what did you do with it by winning champions league to prove that your domination was not fluke.