Inter patron Steven Zhang said the Scudetto was ‘a special moment’, claimed ‘all clubs must cut costs’ and stressed the Nerazzurri will ‘work with FIFA and UEFA to improve the quality of the game’.
The Nerazzurri President spoke to The Agenda on Chinese TV and said he was ‘proud’ of the team’s success in 2020-21.
“I’m very proud,” he said. “It was a special moment for everyone, for the people of Inter, for the fans, for the city of Milan.
“In the last nine years we have had a very strong opponent and they have won with merit. The last time we won the championship was 11 years ago.
“This shows that our work over the past five years has been on the right track. Obviously, seeing the whole city and the fans so happy was very satisfying.”
Inter were one of the 12 founding clubs that announced the breakaway Super League, but also the first of the Italian teams to pull out of the competition.
Zhang was asked if the Super League will be re-proposed in the future and said the Beneamata collaborates with FIFA and UEFA.
“I think this series of events has inspired us,” he said. “We need to work with FIFA and UEFA to improve the quality of the game.
“The pandemic has prompted us to see the need for change. No matter which method is used, what we need to know is that it is necessary to understand the market, understand the situation once the pandemic is over, change the football system and improve it.”
Inter are cutting costs after the pandemic and Zhang pointed out that ‘all clubs must think about how to cut expenses and how to maintain sustainability in the coming years’.
“Unfortunately, the outbreak of the new pandemic has really changed the environment of international football and has impacted many industries especially those engaged in offline services,” Zhang said.
“The football and sports industry are the industries that have been hit the most. Fans cannot go to the stadium to see the games in person and many shops and restaurants have had to remain closed.
“This has actually affected our industry. If you look at the 2019-20 season, the entire football industry in Europe may have lost €2bn to €3bn.
“If the two seasons are combined, our losses will double, possibly reaching €5bn to €6bn, affecting many clubs and people in the sector.
“This figure will not be recovered anytime soon, so for us, many situations will not be like they were before the pandemic.
“Now all clubs must think about how to cut expenses and how to maintain sustainability in the coming years.
“We need time to recover from the impact of the pandemic, we need to think about how to attract the attention of the fans and we will need to think about how to use digital platforms and social media to satisfy those who cannot be at the stadium.
“We are focusing on that now, but we have started to work much earlier than the epidemic to build the infrastructure, to give a stable system to the club.
“We developed new products after the epidemic and made changes to our system.”