The master of the ball. The definition, albeit a bit romanticized, fits perfectly Marco Bogarelli, today more than ever the engine of the football machine. The general public knows Adriano Galliani and Claudio Lotito well, a little less the man who, behind the scenes, dictates the guidelines to follow. The CEO of Milan and the president of Lazio are the arms, he is the mind: the image is all there and gives an idea of how the football system works. Which, as everyone knows, bears its exorbitant costs (and, in some cases, higher than revenues) mainly on satellite or terrestrial TV.
That's why the Antitrust was at least amazed by last June's call for rights: Sky won all the matches in the three-year period 2015-18 for 572 million, Mediaset Premium the package of the best 8 for 373 million. Apparently a lot of money, yet, according to the supervisory bodies, less than what would have come in with a "real" auction. Hence the suspicion (later translated into the searches by the Guardia di Finanza) that Sky and Mediaset would have found an agreement after the tender, aimed at dividing up the market without third party intrusions. All thanks to the "field" work of Galliani and Lotito (the latter, in a telephone interception a few months ago, boasted of "controlling 17-18 Serie A votes") and to Bogarelli's direction.
Tiptoed in 2008, the 59-year-old Milanese who graduated from Bocconi he became, within a few years, one of the most powerful men in football. He's the one directing in front, a company which, among many other things, occupies the role of Advisor to the Lega Calcio for the marketing of the TV rights of Serie A, B, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa. Recently sold to the Chinese Wang Jianlin, president of the Wanda Group, for the monstrous sum of 1 billion euros, Infront (of which Bogarelli remained president) helps to bring the 20 teams A 1,1 billion out of the 2,3 in total revenue : TV rights, marketing and sponsorship, the list has it all. A domain that began quietly starting from the small teams, to then get to control almost everything, with all due respect to those who, like Juventus and Rome, would like to expand the markets. But why all this power?
An anonymous source from Lega Calcio gave the answer to the newspaper Repubblica: “Infront has bought the rights of clubs that are unable to sell their commercial spaces inside stadiums, systematically overestimating their value by a few million. The amounts paid in excess are the price paid for the votes in the League ". In short, it is difficult to say no to Bogarelli, especially for those clubs which, without his "generous" donations, would have gone bankrupt long ago. An absolute overwhelming power which, moreover, is destined to grow further. The upcoming purchase of GSport (a company with 34 million in revenues that collected advertising for Fiorentina, Cagliari, Cesena, Parma, Pescara, Livorno, Brescia, Catania, rugby, basketball and volleyball teams) would be only the last piece of a real empire, which sees also the rights to the national football team, the partnership with the Gazzetta dello Sport in the Gazzetta TV company and the image archives of many teams.
GSport would join another satellite of the Infront galaxy, that one Sport09 formally under the control of Publitalia. All aimed at another great project: produce the direction of football matches. All in the hands of Infront and, therefore, of Marco Bogarelli. One who wears no scarves and does not appear publicly; on the other hand, those who really rule don't need to.
