Milan President Paolo Scaroni is ‘worried’ about the future of Serie A, especially considering the gap between Italy’s top flight and the Premier League for international TV rights.
Scaroni was one of the speakers at the ‘Sport Industry Talk’ organised in Milan by RCS on Tuesday.
The Rossoneri President spoke about the future of Serie A and Milan’s long-term plans, including their project to build a new club-owned stadium.
The Rossoneri are planning to build their new arena slightly outside the city of Milan, in the area of San Donato.
“Staying in Milan would have been the best solution but we have already taken different avenues,” said Scaroni, as quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“[In Italy] We have the oldest and ugliest stadiums in Europe. Milan earn €35m from our stadium, Premier League clubs more than €100m. I take responsibility. I’ve never managed to convince the city council about how much Milan needed the best stadium in the world, paid by private investors.
“As for Serie A and Italian football, I am worried,” he continued.
“Things ended decently on the Italian TV rights front, but we still can’t get what we want internationally. We earn €200m, while the Premier League get €2.2 billion.
“We are closing the gap because our clubs are have been doing well in Europe lately but if the Growth Decree is scratched, we’ll take a huge step back. Only the quality of the game can convince the public to watch Serie A instead of other leagues.
“Each football club play on two fronts: competitivity and financial. Milan are managing to be successful in both. We ended the [2022-23] season with a net profit, but results were ok, not marvellous, because, without the Juventus point deduction I wouldn’t be watching Milan-Borussia Dortmund tonight.”
The Rossoneri ended the 2022-23 campaign with 70 points, two fewer than Juventus, but the Bianconeri were docked 10 points for financial irregularities, so they slipped to seventh placement.
UEFA also punished Juve with a one-year suspension from European competitions, so Fiorentina earned a Conference League spot for 2023-24, while Milan formally earned a Champions League placement by finishing fourth.