Agent Mino Raiola accused Serie A clubs of losing their identity and snipes at Aurelio De Laurentiis, but welcomes outside investment. ‘I don’t know if Inter are Chinese or American, but Napoli are owned by a Roman…’
The representative of players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba, Matthijs de Ligt and Erling Haaland has never held back on criticism and reacted to Napoli President De Laurentiis proposing a new European League.
“I find it strange that De Laurentiis has only now realised that football needs to be completely reformed,” Raiola told RAI Sport.
“Today in Italy we have Milan who are American. I don’t know if Inter are Chinese or American, someone will tell me…
“Roma are American, Napoli are owned by a Roman. Perhaps we are more international, while Juventus are still in the hands of the Agnelli family.”
The reference to Napoli being ‘owned by a Roman’ is because De Laurentiis is based in Rome, even though he was born in Naples and still identifies as being Neapolitan.
“We must be careful not to lose space in the football pyramid. If we don’t all work together and form a new project, we’ll realise we’re not even in it anymore,” continued Raiola.
“The most important league in the world now is England for three reasons: money, showmanship and infrastructure, all of which we are lacking in Italy.
“However, we’ll see if the Americans can run our football. There is liquidity there to invest in sport, they are purchasing during their best period and our worst.
“They are investing heavily in Europe and above all Italy. There aren’t any real estate assets here, and they see that as a positive. They think the situation can only improve.”
Genoa are in advanced negotiations to sell to American investors, after Roma, Milan, Fiorentina, Venezia and Spezia were already purchased by US businesses, while Bologna’s owner is Canadian.
#Raiola: ‘#DeLaurentiis si accorge solo ora che il calcio è da rifondare? Non capisco se l’#Inter è cinese o americana’ https://t.co/kTr2xu73Ti pic.twitter.com/rx0WCeehRs
— calciomercato.com (@cmdotcom) September 21, 2021
Where in the quotes listed has he accused Italians teams of ‘losing their identity’? He has highlighted clubs being foreign owned but at the same time lauded the prem – literally fully owned by foreigners, proposed up by foreign money, foreign coaches and brought to the fore due to foreign own tv channel. But where has he stated he is judging serie a for being foreign owned / losing its identity? Another iffy headline.
I’m unsure how this foreign ownership will pan out. I’m glad Serie A is getting investments, but I’d like it to be long term to grow the game rather than transferring debt to the club. As for the “There aren’t any real estate assets here, and they see that as a positive” statement, potential American owners see how much their counterparts are making on stadium naming rights, personal seat licences, and corporate boxes in stadiums and want a piece of that…but they can’t really achieve that in Italy with the current infrastructure. This is dicey, as Milan and Inter’s ownership are not settled affairs at all. Bologna, Fiorentina, & Roma may be stable for now.
@Basta Poco The most settled ownership affairs have seen is Milan, Elliot owned Milan 100% and no issue at all, the account is at the moment is the best in over 20yrs, the issues here if they decide to sell it or keep it. Milan is gold in their hand at the moment as they only acquired the club for 350M (MR LEE DEFAULT) or there about , almost half of its worth, everything around the club now is close to perfect in my opinion. And whenever Elliot decides to sell the club they have massive profits await them. I stand to be corrected though
Serie A is generally underrated, though there is money in the EPL but it’s there ex players and coach that are paying for it. Most of the top Italian clubs are coached by Italian coaches and you have ex players holding notable positions in the clubs including the small clubs. In England it’s not the same, even the smaller clubs are coach by foreigners, director of sports, managers etc are mostly foreigners, the most the English ex player can get is to work as a TV Pundit which to me is a shame, and they will keep ranting EPL is the best. Tony Adams, Martin Keown , David Seaman are all Arsenal Legends but check this out Arteta is Arsenal Coach while Edu is the DS. Patrick Viera is Crystal Palace manager and where are the English ex? They are all on TV making noise.
@Ayodele Spot On!
Sorry, i don`t see any problem here. If we set EPL as good example, let`s see who are owners there. Owners from USA, Russia, United Arab Emirates, China, Thailand etc. and they`re doing just fine. So why this is problem in Italy, but not a problem in England?
@Ayodele Ralph Palmer I agree with your assessment of Milan over the past several years. I based my statement on some internet musings posted in August that Elliot may try to sell the team, to reap the profits you pointed out. If Elliot keep holding on, Milan remains on solid footing.