FIGC director general Michele Uva has hit back at criticism of the organisation, insisting clubs must take a share of blame for the decline in Italian football.
Juventus President Andrea Agnelli hit out at ‘structural limitations which plague our football’ during a shareholders’ meeting on Friday.
FIGC director general Michele Uva has hit back at criticism of the organisation, insisting clubs must take a share of blame for the decline in Italian football.
Juventus President Andrea Agnelli hit out at ‘structural limitations which plague our football’ during a shareholders’ meeting on Friday.
Whilst he insisted that the Bianconeri would never be able to compete with teams like Real Madrid and Manchester United without reform in Serie A, Uva has defended the Italian Football Federation.
“There are three parties involved in the system – the Federation, the Leagues and the clubs,” Uva has today explained to Radio RAI.
“Our institutional duty is to deal with football at every level, and refereeing for the 700,000 games a year which are played under the jurisdiction of the Federation.
“It’s not the Federation’s fault if clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid have tripled their revenues in 10 years, nor is it the fault of the Federation that in Italy the ratio of wages to turnover is between 75 per cent and 90 per cent while in Germany it’s less than 50 per cent.
“The Federation deals with all of football, then the clubs decide independently on stadiums and tickets.”
Uva also gave his thoughts about what can be done to arrest the slide in Italian football, which has seen Serie A fall from second in the UEFA coefficient in 2006, to fourth in 2014, with Portugal looking to overtake the Italian top flight.
“I don’t want to go back over the data, but in 2002 the biggest Italian clubs were charging more than Barcelona.
“Obviously in the last 10 years clubs have relied too much on television rights.
“Between the Federation and the clubs however there’s the League, where the clubs which dominate the competition have all the say.
“We [the Federation] can help the Leagues – a number of reforms have been put in place, with the introduction of Financial Fair Play and checks on the financial health of clubs – but the policies of the clubs and the League shouldn’t be the ones which determine strategies.”