The sports director Pierpaolo Marino spoke to Rai Radio 1 during ‘Radio Anch’Io lo Sport’. This is his thoughts on the main issues concerning our Serie A: “Our championship has not been balanced for several years, there are disparities in turnover and revenues, it is not a question of today. But it was a good championship in terms of entertainment offered by the teams and also for certain technical-tactical innovations. Inter retraced last year’s Napoli championship. Sometimes there are also demerits that determine certain gaps in the standings that some teams had to do and didn’t have Done”.
Should we return to an 18-team league?
“I spent many years with Avellino and Napoli with 16-team championships. Both 16- and 18-team championships are championships which, in their brevity, do not bring out the real technical values. A defeat determined a final ranking. against the reduction of teams. The best formats are the Premier League and La Liga, all 20-team championships which do not reduce the number of teams. In my opinion, the current format is the right one.”
A prediction on the fight for salvation?
“I don’t dare to make any predictions. Sassuolo’s crisis seems difficult to resolve with four matchdays to go. Its huge goal difference highlights the lack of technical and tactical balance. Even if Sassuolo must recognize that the absence of Berardi it caused a crisis from the start which then spread even more severely. As for the others, from Lecce on down, anything can happen: a couple of victories are enough to get out of it. And then there are many direct clashes. for example Udinese have three out of the four remaining matches.”
Udinese-Napoli in the next round?
“A match that at this moment does not reproduce what last year’s championships were. Now they face each other with a completely different scenario, not as festive as last year’s. For me it is a particular challenge, because I remember how Fabio Cannavaro was ball boy in the match against Fiorentina which won the first championship. I have a photo of Fabio walking around with the flag carried by the Napoli players. And then on Fabio’s staff there is also Paolo Cannavaro, my player in the reconstruction of Napoli.”