Inter director Giuseppe Marotta has sounded the alarm bells by stating Italian football is at risk of going under due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The ongoing issues related to the pandemic don’t look to be going away anytime soon, and the 63-year-old called for greater dialogue with the Italian government in order to find a solution that would benefit the sport.
“We’re facing bankruptcy,” Marotta told reporters while at the Festival of Journalism Glocal 2020. “Our situation, that of Italian football, is devastating and we are at risk of a collapse.
“In our first meetings with the Lega Serie A and Deloitte we looked at the losses and the situation isn’t good. The problem is that in football today, the costs aren’t proportional to the money that was made and is made.
“Everything has been significantly reduced given the absence of ticket sales that weigh on our balances for up to €50 million. The money made from sponsors makes up close to 20 percent of our balance. Then you have investments, TV rights and several other things.
“The solution isn’t to ask the government for money. That’s unthinkable. However our system contributes €1-1.2 billion in taxes, which has been poorly highlighted. What we want is for our payments to be deferred.
“We want to be considered one of the biggest contributors, which we are. We work in a world that employs at least 7,000 professionals including players and staff.
“Inter alone have 300 workers. We have to be given greater consideration by the government, not in terms of receiving money or financing, but in terms of modelling our payments differently.”
