{"id":23880,"date":"2021-04-23T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/?p=23880"},"modified":"2021-04-23T02:53:04","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T01:53:04","slug":"the-italian-job-why-are-agnelli-and-co-still-involved-in-the-super-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/the-italian-job-why-are-agnelli-and-co-still-involved-in-the-super-league\/","title":{"rendered":"The Italian Job: Why Are Agnelli And Co. Still Involved In The Super League?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0<\/span>Football\u00a0<\/span>world was<\/span>\u00a0united for the last few nights as the announcement of the European Super League<\/span>\u00a0was made.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The new midweek<\/span>\u00a0tournament<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>format\u00a0<\/span>was cooked over the last six months from a dozen of Europe\u2019s biggest clubs.<\/span>\u00a0The announcement came at huge furore from pundits, fans and even footballers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>I don\u2019t like it one bit, and hopefully it doesn\u2019t happen<\/span>,<\/span>\u201d\u00a0<\/span>said Liverpool midfielder James\u00a0<\/span>Milner after his side’s 1-1 draw in Leeds on Monday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

The uproar of fans and players led to the six English clubs<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>eventually faltering and starting <\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>withdrawal process.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Other clubs such\u00a0<\/span>as\u00a0<\/span>Atletico Madrid and Inter Milan\u00a0<\/span>have\u00a0<\/span>since\u00a0<\/span>joined this process leading to the suspension of the European League.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, according to the President of Real Madrid and the <\/span>i<\/span>naugural\u00a0<\/span>P<\/span>resident of the Super League Florentino Perez, the league is \u201cno<\/span>t<\/span> dead\u201d but \u201con standby\u201d and not all<\/span>\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0clubs<\/span>\u00a0are looking to withdraw<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJuventus and AC Milan have not left the Super League<\/span>. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and AC Milan are still in talks to find solutions<\/span>,\u201d said Mister Perez to El\u00a0<\/span>Larguero<\/span>, a Spanish radio programme.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Juventus Chairman Andrea Agnelli has come under fire for his key role in the controversial league.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This still poses questions for Serie A and Italian football as two of its biggest stakeholders are still involved with the league.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Juventus\u00a0<\/span>president<\/span>\u00a0Andrea Agnelli\u00a0<\/span>who<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>is\u00a0<\/span>Vice-Chair of the league<\/span>\u00a0is a major player in the formation<\/span>, and although AC Milan ha<\/span>s<\/span> released a statement apologised to their fans, they never claimed to withdraw stating that <\/span>\u201cchange is not always eas<\/span>y\u201d in a vague statement. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Italian football is in a dire state due primar<\/span>il<\/span>y to the covid-19 pandemic. Clubs are haemorrhaging at gates in empty old stadiums and the books are reflecting this.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was only on 15<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>April, that seven Serie A clubs including Inter and\u00a0<\/span>Juve<\/span>, signed a letter of no confidence against Serie A President Paolo Dal Pino. The reasons cited poor management over league\u2019s TV rights sale which would lead to 1.65 Billion euros cash injection. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The big six in England could afford to leave the Super League as the revenues for the Premier League are much more sustainable.\u00a0 For Juventus, AC <\/span>Milan<\/span>\u00a0and the withdrawing Inter Milan this is not the case.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, i<\/span>t<\/span>\u00a0i<\/span>s\u00a0<\/span>no surprise<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>why the Italian big boys are looking for alternative forms of revenue.<\/span>\u00a0Agnelli has made no\u00a0<\/span>quips<\/span>\u00a0in the past<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>from\u00a0<\/span>turning away from domestic efforts to focus on building the Juventus club into a\u00a0<\/span>European institution and brand.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>New York times,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>i<\/span>n the\u00a0<\/span>c<\/span>onference call\u00a0<\/span>with Serie A Clubs, Agnelli, <\/span>with the use of an expletive<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>sho<\/span>wed\u00a0<\/span>little\u00a0<\/span>care if Juventus remained in Serie\u00a0<\/span>A.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The same meeting in which<\/span>\u00a0President of cross-town rivals<\/span> Torino Urbano Cairo branded the Juventus head as \u201cJudas\u201d. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The question remains about what will happen to the Italian clubs<\/span>. The Italian Federation\u00a0<\/span>has said that any sanctions will not be applied to the ongoing season<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Calciopoli destroyed the image Italian football had built up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Calls are being made by Italian pundits,\u00a0<\/span>managers,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and fans to have the teams penalised with point reductions and possible\u00a0<\/span>regulations.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The last time the Italian clubs faced consequences this serious was the match-fixing scandal\u00a0<\/span>in<\/span>\u00a02006<\/span> which saw 30 <\/span>points each taken off<\/span> Lazio, Fiorentina and Milan while initial champions Juventus were relegated to Serie B. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although necessary, the results of these punishments are still felt throughout the Italian game and Calciopoli proved to be the final <\/span>strike\u00a0<\/span>that<\/span>\u00a0knocked Serie A of\u00a0<\/span>its<\/span> perch. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These punishments\u00a0<\/span>will hurt the\u00a0<\/span>Italian game, part<\/span>icularly surrounding\u00a0<\/span>broadcasting deals<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

A league without the three biggest players\u00a0<\/span>is not an attractive pro<\/span>spect<\/span>\u00a0to buyers.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>this will still be an issue\u00a0<\/span>if the Super League goes ahead with Juventus and Milan dropping out, so what does the Italian FA do?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The future of the Italian game rests on a knife<\/span>–<\/span>edge with this announcement<\/span> and the kingmakers from Zhang at Inter Milan, Elliott Management at AC Milan and, most importantly,\u00a0 the Ag<\/span>n<\/span>elli family\u00a0<\/span>at Juventus hold all the cards.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The\u00a0Football\u00a0world was\u00a0united for the last few nights as the announcement of the European Super League\u00a0was made.\u00a0\u00a0 The new midweek\u00a0tournament\u00a0format\u00a0was cooked over the last six months from a dozen of Europe\u2019s biggest clubs.\u00a0The announcement came at huge furore from pundits, fans and even footballers.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t like it one bit, and hopefully it doesn\u2019t happen,\u201d\u00a0said Liverpool […]<\/p>\n

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<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":12468,"featured_media":23881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102381,102095,14],"tags":[102156,102382,102383,102366,102198,102385,102158,102384],"class_list":["post-23880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-european-super-league","category-football","category-sports","tag-ac-milan","tag-agnelli","tag-calciopoli","tag-esl","tag-juventus","tag-perez","tag-serie-a","tag-super-league"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":23,"today_views":0},"views":1623,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/download-2021-04-23T013341.831.jpg","wps_subtitle":"An Focal's Caleb Brennan examines why Juventus and AC Milan are still involved in the much-maligned Super League.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23885,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23880\/revisions\/23885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anfocal.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}