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Mix-Ansicht- Beinahe OT: Der Weg abwärts - Italiens Fußball (E) - Popeye, 09.09.2002, 14:08
Beinahe OT: Der Weg abwärts - Italiens Fußball (E)
-->Der nachstehende Artikel aus dem Economist vom 5.9.02 beschreibt die Finanzmisere der italienischen Topliga und ist ein schönes Beispiel deflationärer Entwicklungen.
Italian football
A long dry season
Sep 5th 2002 | MILAN
From The Economist print edition
The troubles of Italian football
Get article background
THIS has not been a good summer for Italian
football. For the first time since the second world war
interrupted play, the kick-off of the leading league,
Serie A, has been postponed, to September 14th. The
traditional summer transfer market for players has
been weak. Yet Italians talk about calcio as never
before. The reason? Money—and Ronaldo, a Brazilian
star footballer, whom Inter Milan has just sold to
Real Madrid.
A financial crisis has been simmering for some time.
The top teams spend too much (to buy good players
and pay their salaries) and make too little (from
tickets, merchandising and television rights). Until
now, appalling finances were the norm. This year,
however, the football authorities asked clubs to
balance their books. Fiorentina—Florence's beloved
team—declared bankruptcy and is now enrolled in the
fourth division under another name, Florentia. Other
teams, such as Parma and Rome's Lazio, have had to
sell their best players. The market has been reduced
to barter: players have been exchanged, but with
little money changing hands. Some of the top players
have been told to prepare for salary cuts.
All teams counted, as usual, on television money.
But state television said it would pay just half the
euro84m ($75m) it forked out last year, and pay-TV
channels were interested only in the top teams.
Offered a meagre euro4m each at first, eight smaller
Serie A teams refused to start the season. The
league asked for tax breaks. It was turned down.
Then, as the transfer season was about to close,
three teams decided they could afford to spend some
money on new blood. One, Juventus of Turin, did it
because its books are in order. AC Milan's chairman
has plenty of money and loves to win (his name is
Silvio Berlusconi). The third, Inter Milan, spent
euro91m on new players, after pocketing euro45m
from selling Ronaldo.
That was the biggest news of the Italian summer.
Ronaldo has twice suffered career-threatening knee
injuries, and was pampered back to fitness by Inter
Milan—just in time for the World Cup in Korea and
Japan, which he helped his country win. On holiday in
Brazil, he said he wanted to move to Madrid. This
may have had less to do with greed than with the
current excellence of the Spanish league and of Real
Madrid in particular. Inter Milan's chairman, Massimo
Moratti, was upset. Supporters were flabbergasted.
Acres of newsprint were devoted to the saga. The day
he left, an angry mob shouted abuse and broke his
car windows. So, Italy's football fans are busy. But
there is no football, yet.
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