FIGC president Gabriele Gravina reflected on a lunch hosted by Andrea Agnelli in September 2021, which various club directors and league officials attended.
Ahead of the release of the Rai documentary Report, examining the Prisma investigation into Juventus, various excepts have been released. SportItalia reported how Agnelli set up a private lunch at his mother’s residence on September 23rd 2021, inviting club directors from various Serie A teams and the heads of Lega Serie A and the Italian FA.
Discussing the meeting, Gravina explained why it was held and what was discussed.
“The meeting had been set up by Andrea Agnelli, in agreement with Dal Pino, in order to verify the possibility of settling disagreements within the League and in the relations between the League and the FA.
“I learnt of the initiative from Dal Pino himself and it was presented to me as a need to identify common elements, also through the drafting of a document, aimed at solutions in the perspective of reorganising the football system.”
Gravina then spoke about the topic of capital gains in modern football and his previous position on the matter.
“I was reminded that statements of mine regarding the topic of capital gains have been picked up by the press over the last few months.
“Well, in this regard I want to clarify that on the one hand I have the absolute conviction that the capital gain, in every business sector, is an objective to be achieved and so it is in football as well, and in this sense are my public statements that I have made without receiving any invitation or impulse from anyone.
“On the other hand, I would like to point out that since 2021 I have been president of the UEFA Licensing Commission and within the commission, capital gains are one of the topics discussed, because when we go to talk about indicators, we know that the subject of capital gains is one that has to be taken into account for the purposes of licensing.
“However, there are no objective evaluation criteria, and so, in my opinion, we have not yet managed to identify satisfactory criteria that would allow us to have more clarity on the subject.
“Moreover, I am sensitive to this issue, so much so that Covisoc’s work originated, without in any way detracting from the work of the Commission, from a report of mine made by the Federation’s Research Centre.”
Agnelli and the entire Juventus board of directors unexpectedly resigned at the end of November amid the investigation, leaving the club in a difficult spot. The management has been overhauled and the Old Lady are expected to change their direction in the coming months, pushing for a more sustainable model.