TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2013 SPORTS Italian soccer in dire state as television weighs options MILAN: When Italy’s cash-strapped soccer clubs preparing to appoint an agent to negotiate next companies left after the failure of the fledgling Infront says it will guarantee a minimum of 900 meet late yesterday to prepare for a new deal on year with the television companies for a new deal Dahlia in 2011, would also struggle to keep their million euros a year to the clubs for the next three broadcast rights, their deliberations will be colored for the rights to broadcast matches, which are operations going. “Lega Calcio’s problem is how to seasons and another 930 million for the three sea- by the unhappy knowledge that Italian football is in shared between clubs and form well over half of increase these revenues in the long term so they sons after that in a six-year deal worth 5.5 billion a dismal state and viewers are switching off. their annual income. can compete with other leagues abroad,” said euros. The deal has been upset by an 11th-hour A farcical match in the third division this month, The choice of agent, expected at a meeting late Claudio Aspesi, an analyst at financial market offer from sports agency IMG, which put in a 3 bil- which saw a local derby near Naples abandoned yesterday of Lega Calcio, the body that represents research firm Sanford Bernstein. “But Italy is a mar- lion euro bid for domestic and international rights after players were threatened by fans and faked the clubs, will set the agenda for at least the next ket that is not big enough to support two pay-TV for the three seasons from 2015/16, sources close to injury to avoid playing, underlined the grim climate three seasons. The company favored to win, Swiss- operators. That’s the bottom line.” the situation said. IMG declined to comment ahead in the Italian game, beset for years by match-fixing based agency Infront, has held the contract since Sky proposes breaking up the rights into pack- of Monday’s meeting of Lega Calcio. scandals and stadium violence. 2009 and is bidding to have it extended for another ages on which different operators would be free to Sources close to the talks say the clubs are More seriously, from the broadcasters’ point of six years in the face of resistance from some of the bid for exclusive rights, a model it says would open expected to back Infront’s offer, but only for three view, the game’s top level has fallen sharply since clubs and from News Corp’s Italian unit Sky Italia. the sector up to more competition, increase sub- years, rather than the full six years it has sought, the glory days of the 1990s, when Serie A was a Sky Italia has long been unhappy with a status scribers and bring in more revenue. with several clubs still unhappy with the proposal. byword for footballing glamour and attracted the quo, which it says holds back development of the But many of the clubs are suspicious that such a The battle has already split Lega Calcio into two cream of the world’s playing talent. game and favors its rival, Mediaset, owned by Silvio model would give too much power to one broad- blocs, with a 13-strong group around Milan and Italy’s deep recession has hit spending on luxu- Berlusconi, the former prime minister and boss of caster, while Mediaset, which is slashing costs and Mediaset lining up against Sky Italia and a smaller ries like television football subscriptions hard, but Serie A club AC Milan. investments to make up for falling advertising sales group of seven clubs led by Juventus that want to broadcasters have also been worried by a slide in It has pushed hard for a re-negotiation of the and is unable to match Sky Italia’s bidding power, overhaul the system. matchday attendances and the now standard back- contract, which, uniquely in Europe, awards televi- fears being left only with unattractive packages. Big clubs such as Juventus, with its big fan base, drop of empty seats in half-filled stadiums. sion rights on the basis of delivery platform but “If there are good packages and bad packages, glorious playing history and ties to car giant Fiat, Swedish attacker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, perhaps which charges widely different prices to the two we’re not going to be bidding for the bad ones; and Inter Milan, now owned by Indonesian tycoon the last genuine international star to play in Italy, main broadcasters. we’d get out of football,” said one source close to Erick Thohir, play in a different financial league from moved to Qatar-backed Paris Saint Germain in 2012, Sky pays 561 million euros for the right to broad- Mediaset. “It would be bad news for us, but we’re smaller clubs such as tiny Hellas Verona or Udinese and though in 2010 Inter Milan won the UEFA cast 380 matches a year via satellite, while Mediaset not going to pay money for something no-one and already collect the lion’s share of TV revenues. Champions League, a competition among Europe’s pays only 268 million euros for 324 matches on digi- watches.” They have been particularly keen for an overhaul top clubs, Italian clubs overall have slipped behind tal terrestrial television, which used to have - but no Infront’s chairman Marco Bogarelli, a veteran with more cash raised from international rights, their rivals in Spain, Germany and England. longer has - a smaller geographical coverage than executive whose career stretches back to the 1980s which Juventus chairman Andrea Agnelli noted last “The reality in Italy is that pay-TV is losing sub- satellite. “It is a discriminatory model which is not when Berlusconi pioneered private television in month earned Italian clubs only a fraction of the scribers,” Marco Giordani, chief financial officer of fair, just or sustainable,” Sky Italia Vice President Italy, rejects the frequently heard criticism that he is sums raised by the English Premier League. Mediaset, Italy’s biggest private broadcaster told Jacques Raynaud said in a letter to the Corriere del- too close to Mediaset and Milan, for which Infront For the moment, though, the betting is that the financial market analysts this month. la Sera newspaper earlier this year. manages some commercial rights. current arrangement will continue without the kind “Consumer spending is declining, disposable Without the roughly 1 billion euros ($1.35 bil- He says he is committed to maximising revenues of revolution that would create new winners and income is declining, the UEFA ranking of the Italian lion) in television income, the clubs, which racked but he has been reluctant to consider changing the losers among clubs desperately hanging on to their team is declining, the number of teams participat- up combined operating losses of 160 million euros current system. “Our role is to sell the product as share of a shrinking pie. “That’s not going to hap- ing in the European competition is declining, top in the 2011/12 season, would be unable to keep best we can. But in the end it’s the market and the pen,” said one source close to Mediaset. “I don’t players are leaving Italy,” he said. going. But without the 4.4 million subscribers to fans and supporters that set the price,” he told think the clubs are going to be that greedy and risk It is in this downbeat climate that the clubs are soccer matches, Sky and Mediaset, the two pay-TV Reuters. what they’ve got already.” —Reuters Costa finds ally in choice of Spain over Brazil MADRID: Because he was born in Brazil but opted to play for Spain, Diego Costa can expect a rough reception from Brazilian fans at next year’s World Cup. But Marcos Senna completely understands Costa’s decision to play for the country that adopt- ed him. Like Costa, Senna also was born in Brazil but played his international football for Spain. He expects the furor over the striker’s choice of nation- al team and the tug-of-war for him between Spain and Brazil to soon blow over. “I don’t see any reason for such polemic,” Senna, a 2008 European Championship winner with Spain, said in a telephone interview. “While it is a heated issue right now, I think come the World Cup, people will be focused on their own teams.” Dozens of nat- PARIS: Ukraine national team players run during a training session on the eve of sec- uralized players have turned out for Spain over the ond leg World Cup 2014 qualifying play-off matches against France. — AFP years. The most famous are Argentina-born Alfredo di Stefano, who made 31 appearances for Spain, and Hungarian pair Ferenc Puskas and Laszlo Mexico face NZ with one Kubala. Costa moved to Europe in 2005, signing first with Portuguese club Penafiel and then moving foot in World Cup finals around Spain with spells at Celta Vigo, Valladolid, Rayo Vallecano and now Atletico Madrid. Diego Costa He has scored 17 goals in 18 games for Atletico WELLINGTON: Pride dented and World result flaterred Mexico. “I don’t think the this season. That reliability makes Costa an interest- Cup hopes in the balance, Mexico have Mexican team were worthy of five goals,” March 5 when Spain plays an international friendly feel like a privileged person to be pulling on the jer- ing alternative for Spain to Fernando Torres, who is coped with the ignominy of an interconti- All Whites midfielder Chris James told against Italy.