The Decline of Professional Football in Italy

Italian football is on a unsustainable path. The problem has not been tackled so far and only very recently clubs started to reduce costs, notably wage costs, in order to reduce their debt. However, these cost reductions are generally achieved by letting superstar players to leave and this is bound to have an impact on TV rights, by and large the main source of revenues of clubs. Due to this concentration of revenues, a consolidation made almost entirely of wage costs, inducing a decline in the international appeal of Serie A may be rather ineffective in improving the debt position of clubs. Put it another way, any serious attempt to get Italian football out of this unsustainable path, should also address the revenue side.