Igli Tare gave his thoughts on the health of modern football and suggested that top clubs like Juventus and Inter are ‘technically bankrupt’.
The Biancocelesti have had an incredibly busy season so far, playing two games a week since the start of the campaign. Despite the packed schedule, Maurizio Sarri’s side are looking good, even if their performances in Europe have disappointed a little compared to their domestic exploits.
Serie A will take a six-week break for the World Cup next month, giving Sarri a little time to focus on the training ground with his squad.
Speaking at a talk at Luiss University (via LazioNews24), Tare first discussed the match schedule for this season and the impact it has on the players.
We are driving a Ferrari that will crash sooner or later. In football we invent useless competitions like the Conference League, which I call the losers’ competition, or the Europa League, which have no value for the revenue they produce.
We invent extra competitions, even the Nations League with national teams and footballers who become robots.
We play every two and a half days now and the footballers cannot recover. This is not human. To generate more revenue, we generate more problems. Football has taken the wrong path.
He gave his thoughts on multi-club ownership in football, a topic that has been heavily discussed following the City Group’s acquisition of Palermo and Chelsea owner Todd Boehly’s stated ambitions.
Multi-club ownership has not only been implemented in Italy, but there are now many funds worldwide, which have also acquired many clubs in this country. They own up to six, seven different clubs in different countries.
This is not a bad thing, but it must have an ulterior motive that is useful for the team. It depends on what the purpose of the timeshare is.
If you own a club that has ambitions of going into the football that counts, for example Serie A, in the long run it becomes a problem because in this case De Laurentiis in Bari will be forced to sell maybe in seven months.
That is why I insist on second teams. It is no coincidence that more than six years ago we held a meeting in the League to change ideas and I had the opportunity to tell my experience on the subject.
Finally, Tare gave his thoughts on club owners in Serie A and the problems at the upper echelons.
By now there are four owners left, which we can define as familiar: Udinese, Atalanta, Lazio and Napoli. I am more for this management, as the multinationals only have a commercial interest and you lose the beauty of football, the passion, the love.
Those funds work with algorithms and no longer want to know about the history of the team and the city. I am a fan of the old school.
What is missing in football? Corporate managers, the fact that the length of contracts varies too much. Take me, I am one of the longest serving managers in Serie A, this is my 15th year at Lazio. I have the good fortune to work with a club with virtuous management.
Today there are clubs, even top clubs, like Juventus, Roma, Milan, Inter, which are technically bankrupt, but are kept alive by the fact that the system needs them. It is very important to have long-term management in the society with important projects to see the good of the society.
