Today, the 7th Standing Committee of the Senate will vote on a document on the prospects for reforming Italian football, proposed by Senator Marcheschi, which gives the Government several indications on how and why to intervene to restore and valorise the world of football. 

The wording of the document highlights the economic impact of the sector on the GDP (11.3 million euros), as well as its social and cultural impact, based on the 650,000 children and young people interested in the sport most loved by Italians.

The announcement

The sports daily la Gazzetta has reported that the Commission ‘commits the government’ to a series of interventions. Many of them respond to requests that football, especially through the federal president Gabriele Gravina, had made to the state in recent months. And among them are two that could soon bring a breath of fresh air to the clubs. The executive is asked to ‘evaluate the modification of the current ban on match advertising and betting on sporting events’. 

This is the famous Dignity Decree, wanted in 2018 by the then Minister of Labour Luigi Di Maio to combat gambling addiction. The facts show that the effect was the opposite and that the lack of clarity about what was legal and what was not has only contributed to enriching the illegal gambling market. Minister Abodi has been working on this point for some time: the idea is to include the reform in the first useful decree, as this particular intervention does not affect public finances, but only depends on the political will that now seems to have been achieved across the board.

The minister Abodi wants to re-establish both direct and indirect advertising, and at the same time launch a major cultural awareness campaign on the subject of gambling (also called for by the Commission). Abodi, however, has always made a distinction between sports betting and gambling linked more to luck, a difference that will also appear in his reform. As for football, it has been estimated that with the Dignity Decree the professionals have lost around 100 million in sponsorship per season: changing this would have an immediate positive impact.

The Percentage

Still on betting, the Commission also invited the government to ‘assess the opportunity to allocate an annual share of the revenue from sports games and sports betting to the organisers of the events on which the bets are placed’. In fact, it sees the opportunity to allocate at least 1% of the total value to a fund for the construction of new stadiums and for the modernisation of old ones, and to recognise another part to the football system for the pursuit of its institutional aims and for the financing of specific social and sporting projects within the clubs, linked to the financing of interventions in favour of youth sectors, "facilities and women's football". 

A line also urged by the FIGC and already taken up by Abodi. What is missing? The Crescita Decree (Growth Decree), on which the new president of Lega Serie A Simonelli is betting a lot and on which he will have a summit with Abodi and the MP Leo de la Mef on 10 March. On the other hand, there is the possibility of tax relief in the form of a tax credit for investments in infrastructure and in the youth, amateur and women's sectors. As well as a number of indications to facilitate the renovation of stadiums. The feeling is that everyone is realising how important football is for Italy and how risky it is not to support it.