In a heated virtual assembly yesterday, Andrea Agnelli, Giuseppe Marotta and Ivan Gazidis were called “Judas” by other Serie A owners for joining the Super League and invited to resign from their charges. Juventus, Inter and Milan confirmed that they want to continue playing in Serie A, while a minority of sides called to banish them, Repubblica informs.
Rival officials accused that they would always win the title thanks to the new stream of profits. Agnelli reportedly replied that they had succeeded anyway over the last 80 years. The League does not have the legal ground nor the ability to expel the three rebel teams, which account for 67% of the fans and 40% of the overall income. On the other hand, the Italian Football Association would have such faculty, especially if supported by UEFA and FIFA.
An early study indicates that Serie A could lose between 30 and 50 percent of their revenue because of the Super League. DAZN would object to excluding the more profitable clubs after paying €840M for TV rights on the current format for the next three years.
Corriere della Sera reports that the talks between the top Italian teams started last September when Juventus and Inter chairmen Agnelli and Zhang had a summit with CEO Gazidis at Casa Milan. Things escalated in mid-January when Real Madrid president Florentino Perez visited Turin and held a three-hour meeting with Agnelli.
Shortly thereafter, the Bianconeri and the Beneamata voted down the project to create a media company and sell a stake of it to private equity funds. It would have allowed Serie A to earn €1.7B while ceding some control over the TV rights and the contract clauses would have blocked any club from joining a Super League for ten years.