Simonelli, president of the Serie A League: “Italian football is sick, but Serie A is not”

“Our football is sick but not Serie A, a competitive championship which has seen an increase in audiences in recent years.” Thus Ezio Simonelli, president of the Lega Calcio Serie A, during his speech in the panel “Today’s football, tomorrow’s football” on the occasion of the third edition of the Lega Serie A Festival in Parma, in which he participated together with Paolo Benin (President of Lega Serie B), Matteo Marani (President of Leg Pro) and Umberto Calcagno (President of AIC).

THERE IS A LACK OF TALENTS

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“For 3 years we have had more than 30 thousand spectators on average per match – said Simonelli -, our championship is among the most competitive and the winner always changes. There is a desire for football, it is clear that there are many things to do. We have a problem at an international level because we no longer have the great champions who appeal and help young people grow. We would all like the national team to return to the glories of the past, with Malagò we have shared a program to relaunch Italian football which will start from the schools. We need a long-term project period, the future champions are those who are 12 years old today.”

INTERNSHIPS AND FANS

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“When things don’t go well, everyone’s to blame – added Simonelli -. There was a lot of talk about the internship for the national teams, the truth is that there were no days available and in any case no national team in the world did it except Turkey, which is a championship with 18 teams. There is a lot of ignorance among the fans about what the Federation is and what the leagues are. With Serie B, C, the technical parts and the amateurs, we form the components of the Football Federation, which does a whole series of things brought back to Serie A. The League makes the calendars, advances and postponements, which however essentially decide the TVs, but it does not affect the travel bans. In the case of the last Rome derby we appealed to the TAR to protect the fans involved. The issue is not only linked to the players who are lost but also to those who are not found: for example in the five top leagues there are only one Sicilian and one Calabrian: is it possible that there are so few in these regions?

FEWER INTERRUPTIONS

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“We expect ever-increasing levels of performance from the referees – added Lega Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo on the sidelines of the event -. We need more European refereeing, with fewer interruptions, to make people play more and intervene more if the benches behave incorrectly. We need to give more space to the spectacle and the game”.