Lega Serie A CEO Luigi de Siervo has revealed that Serie A loses about €1 billion due to piracy in every three years and has shed light on many other issues involving the league’s finances.
La Repubblica had recently reported that Serie A could be tottering on the edge of a financial crisis, as their broadcast deal with DAZN runs out in 2024 and the next TV deal is expected to fetch them a lesser amount of money. TV revenues have fallen in Serie A in the current decade and they are expected to fall further.
De Siervo spoke to La Repubblica about a host of Serie A financial issues and piracy was one of the subjects he shed light on. He said:
“With piracy , the loser is certainly Serie A and we lost around €1 billion every three years due to piracy. But all of football, even Serie B and Lega Pro, is financed with money from television rights”.
On the lack of control around piracy, De Siervo said: “There is above all the telecommunication. We have the dubious distinction of being the country with the highest piracy rate in the world. And this happened because of the silence of politics and the authorities.”
On Serie A’s rising debt and financial struggles, the CEO revealed that the problems have ‘ancient’ origins. He said: “The problems have ancient origins. Covid then created losses of 1.2 billion. It helped everyone but gave nothing to football. In addition, we must complain about the selfish attitude of the players. They practically did not give up nothing to help the sector that pays them handsomely.”
La Repubblica’s detailed financial report yesterday had not just pointed out an upcoming financial disaster, but also the fact that investment funds could be looking at staking claim in the league in exchange for a percentage of the league’s total revenue. But it remains unknown how the money would be used by Serie A.
Kaustubh Pandey | GIFN
