Soccer in crisis, De Laurentiis wants a 16-team Serie A and beyond
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis on Radio CRC described his recipe for a revival of Italy after yet another world disappointment: “My sentiment has been clear for ten years. To me it just comes with a smile, we in Naples have a beautiful expression that my father always used “A pazziella mmano ‘e criature.” We have always said that we play too much and all this destroys our players. Today we continue to want to be 20 teams, but if we went back to 16 teams, if we abolished the Super Cups to be played in Saudi Arabia, we would save our players – who are an asset we pay for – and we would have the time to be able to coach the national team.”
“We should start to reflect: is the tacticism that the Italian game revels in propaedeutic to then being successful against other nations? I have been accusing for years that in Italian soccer everything is dormant and that nothing is moved, because by not moving anything, everyone lives on: I am not one who likes to live on.”
De Laurentiis points to one name for the future: that of Giovanni Malagò: “The world of sports, where the state is also involved, has been a harbinger of great successes: we have seen evidence of this at the Winter Olympics and at the last Olympics. Malagò has been someone who has worked very well, unimpeachable from a professional point of view.”
“Sometimes politics forgets that there are 28 million fans, who are also voters: soccer is a collective sport that moves many interests and also souls. Someone like Malagò, who is used to always doing the best because he is a great professional and has always shown it, is someone who can give rather than take, also being endowed with a certain humility. Unfortunately, in the world around us many want to be there to take, without understanding that in order to receive one must give. There is no doubt whatsoever that if Malagò were to take charge of Italian soccer, the latter would very soon rise again. If from tomorrow morning we would start again with him, in my opinion within two years we would be strong again.”
De Laurentiis pushes for radical changes: “In soccer you have to reset and not be afraid and ashamed to start from scratch. I am tired of having to make my players available: my players are available if you reimburse me a substantial part of what we invest and if you make me full insurance of his value in case of injury for X period when he cannot play. This has to be very clear: we cannot always play with other people’s money.”
“Now we have to dot the i’s, because the moment is not tragic, provided everyone becomes aware of it and we start from scratch. 16 teams, fewer games, more time to coach the national team, pay players who go to the national team to the clubs that loan them out, total insurance in case of injury: this in my opinion is the due restart.”
