From the stage of the Sports Festival in Trento, the president of Lazio Claudio Lotito he spoke about the financial situation linked to football and the rules that regulate its effectiveness: “The rules must find consensus, but if we continue to shoot at football… We talk about Scrooge presidents, but that’s not the case. Here i Scrooges are just footballers and agents. The president has to deal with the lira, to carry on a club in terms of self-sufficiency. When I arrived Lazio had a turnover of 84 million and spent 86 million. And it was over 500 million in debt , otherwise you won’t sign up for the championship. We have stringent sporting rules. But there are other aberrant things, a legacy of rules from many years ago.
Let’s start by reformulating the figure of the player: is a Serie A player who earns 5 million an employee or a freelancer? Today he has the rights of an employee and the duties of a freelancer and it is not possible. It would be enough to change 5-6 formulas. The Dignity Decree prevents live advertising, for example you cannot put betting sponsorships on the shirt. But in March the state will give concessions to video poker machines and bingo halls… We, on the other hand, only suffer the consequences without having the economic return. Can’t a small percentage, as happened in France, be made available to clubs? I’m talking about 0.5%, 1%, figures that would not affect the state.
The state has 1526 billion in missed collections, then it contests and wages war on a system that produces 1.2 billion like football… We should create a committee for betting, live advertising, stadium regulations, which includes tickets, beverage and food. And then there is the issue of the Growth Decree: someone like Lukaku comes to Italy if he has an economic advantage, otherwise not. And if the state doesn’t come, it loses the proceeds… There are anomalies and exploitations linked to bad information and thinking about football in the wrong way.”