"No, no, no." Alexander Antonello, managing director ofInter denied Suning's intention to leave the Nerazzurri club with a triple no to the Financial Times this morning. “The shareholder – he says – is focused on a long-term programme”. Therefore, there is no confirmation of a negotiation with the Pif, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia which also seems intent on shopping in the world of football, imitating its Qatari cousins.
Serie A, Inter remain Chinese
Suning stays in the saddle, in short, despite the fact that the Chinese group has to meet maturing obligations at home for 1,2 billion dollars. But on his side he can boast the success of the bond issue orchestrated by Goldman Sachs in January: 415 million cashed in within a few days. Not bad for a company that closed on 30 June with a loss of 245 million euros. But it is the confirmation ofappeal of Friendly at a time of great financial turmoil for everything related to sport, free time and entertainment. Especially for those who, and this is the case of Inter, can count, together with the rival cousins of the Elliott fund (owner of Milan) in perspective on the deal of the century: the new San Siro, heart of what could be the center of the new Milan. Complicated operation, but sufficient to justify the appetites for speculation.
Serie A more and more stars and stripes
Who has undoubtedly made the deal of the century is Antonio Percassi, patron ofAtalanta. The entrepreneur, as is known, he gave up during the week 55% of Dea srl, the box that contains 86% of the club, ad a pool of US investors led by Stephen Pagliuca, president of Bain Capital and co-owner of the Boston Celtics, who paid 275 million out of his own pocket. Percassi, who had bought the club on sale conditions (15 million euros) achieves a double objective: he remains at the operational helm of the club which, among other things, has been the most profitable participation of his group for years; raises the necessary capital for the relaunch of Odissea, the holding company that controls industrial, commercial and catering activities, severely tested by the pandemic.
Pagliuca is, for now, the last tycoon hunting for a role in Italian football. In addition to Milan, taken over by the Elliott fund as a result of an unpaid credit from the Chinese Yonghong Li they fly the US flag the properties of Bologna, Fiorentina, Parma, Spezia and Venice, as well as Dan Friedkin's Giallorossi Roma. Among the latest arrivals is the 777 fund, the new owner of Genoa. Ascoli in the hands of the North Sixth Group fund and Spal di Tacopina, already a partner of Roma, also have American partners. If we exclude the case of Salernitana, taken over by Iervolino, all proprietary movements of recent years, marked by the retreat of the local properties (Berlusconi, Moratti, Della Valle), they run, after the Asian parenthesis, on the stars and stripes route.
Serie A, the appeal lies in its backwardness
But why does a US entrepreneur choose to invest in one of the most deficient sectors of Made in Italy, moreover in a complete state of confusion as demonstrated by the troubled attempts to appoint a new president of the League, after the resignation of Paolo Dal Pino, the flop of the negotiations with private equity such as CVC (which then headed for the Spanish Liga) and Advent, the lack of departure of the Lega TV as well as the climate of separation in the house between presidents who hardly speak to each other anymore? Perhaps the answer lies precisely in the chaos of the system which has resulted, under the skies of the pandemic, in an economic landslide.
Of course, the crisis affects more or less everyone and requires reviewing the balance of the system, divided between the proposals of Fifa (a World Cup every two years) and those of UEFA (President Ceferin is about to obtain the consent of the clubs with a sharp increase in prizes for the Champions League). But if in the 2020 financial year the main leagues experienced a drop in revenue of around 10%, for Serie A the bloodletting was more than double. Hence the diagnosis advanced on Repubblica by Claudio Sottoriva, a professor of business economics at the Cattolica in Milan specializing in the management of football clubs. “American investors – he explains – buy Italian clubs for two reasons: build own stadiums and to profit from a business still underexploited, especially from the point of view of TV rights”.
In other words, the appeal of football consists in the backwardness of the system unable to valorise a product which could also enjoy a much higher economic return on international markets. Due to governance limits, perhaps more than capital. Antonello himself says: “The arrival of an injection of capital from abroad is a possible solution to the League's problems. But she's not alone. The most important thing is to find someone to help us in the process of achieving a new governance capable of creating more added value in the future”.
And the Premier League celebrates 30 years, a model to follow
A recipe reminiscent of that of Premier League, that just Sunday celebrated its thirty years of life. It was 1992 when the six most powerful clubs decided to break up the unity of the Football League to deal directly with TV rights without going through an agreement with the other 87 clubs of the "old" football. It was the beginning of a revolution made possible by the alliance with Rupert Murdoch for TV rights, the true cornucopia which even today, with new protagonists, guarantees the superiority of what has become the most successful sports product in the world. But another ingredient was decisive: the obligation imposed by Mrs Thatcher to renovate stadiums after the Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies. "The clubs resisted - writes Simon Kuper, soccer's historic signing - But finally, with clean toilets, football expanded its audience".
Adequate and safe systems as well as international media coverage (not just TV), which is what Serie A still lacks 30 years later.
