Italian media long article: Italian football has not changed anything in 10 years, and has been thrown into the garbage dump for 11 seasons

The Turin Sports quoted Agnelli's speech in 2014 to analyze the current difficulties faced by Italian football, saying that the problems Agnelli mentioned in 2014 have been around for 10 years, and Italian football is still facing the same similar problems and has not changed.

Agnelli spoke:

We have not witnessed a particularly wealthy Serie A transfer market that has seen some great talented players leave and only attract great champions at the end of their careers. Apart from that, it is strange to see some of the big clubs that once bid for talented players with Real Madrid or Manchester United, and now even if there is a move, they just accept their redundant players and compete with the 12th-ranked team in the Premier League for players. Agnelli expressed his opinion on this situation.

1. Revenue:

"The challenges we will face in the coming years are even more difficult. The economic fundamentals of international competitors have brought us to the obvious fact that the gap with the top European clubs is still large, and this gap must be narrowed to give us hope to achieve results that match our international historical status. Our main competitors, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, have clearly distanced themselves from us at the revenue level. No Italian club can grow at their rate, which is a structural limitation. Spain and England have created brands with global influence, which have a beneficial impact on individual clubs, and individuals can only grow when collective products grow."

2. Stadium:

"I have pointed out the need and urgency of some systematic structural reforms. Our football requires significant domestic measures and new impetus to the international market. The Juventus Arena, which we are proud and proud of, remains the only example of sports facilities representing the cutting-edge level, capable of serving as a model of security and providing high-quality live experiences and television broadcasts. Unfortunately, it represents only one-twentieth the potential of Italy's 'stadium products': it's too little to allow the collective management of Italian football to be decisively accelerated. The development of new infrastructure is a key theme for the next five years, during which Italian football must choose between international competitiveness or marginalization, and it seems inevitable to slide to the latter today."

3. Italian Talent:

"It is necessary to reduce the number of professional clubs and re-examine the composition of the team's roster to ensure that the national team has sufficient recruitment supply. These priorities must be carried out in parallel with two other important reforms that share common goals: talent. The first is an appropriate immigration policy, which respects both national laws and system development and human rights. Finally, it is the issue on the second team, as it ensures that talent grows continuously and coordinatedly through solid communication with the first team. A generation of great Italian players are ending their careers and must quickly develop a new generation of players who can take over the mantle in the next three years."

From 2014 to the present: The collapse of Italian football

If you have read this, you deserve to know the truth. These statements are clearly Agnelli's, and he signed his signature to testify at the end of the article. However, this signature was signed in a letter to Juventus shareholders issued in October 2014.

Eleventh year ago. Yes, but it's impeccable even if published today.

Unfortunately, because nothing has changed in ten years, eleven seasons were thrown into the garbage dump, and there were only sporadic sporting satisfaction (such as the Europa League in Atlanta and the European Cup in Italy), but we were dragging behind us with exactly the same problems, and these problems further eroded the potential of Italian football during this period.

1. Revenue: What has changed? The gap that Agnelli was worried about in 2014 has widened by 2024 (the 2025 data will be released in the fall). If in 2014, the difference between the total revenue of Real Madrid, Bayern and Manchester United and the total revenue of Juventus, Inter Milan has reached an astonishing 848 million euros.

So now this difference is 1.437 billion euros, an increase of 69.4%. It's a huge distance, it's digging deeper and deeper technical gaps (sometimes overshadowed by some temporary excellence), and the difference in attractiveness, which makes it increasingly difficult to sell products.

Real Madrid broke the 1 billion euro mark in 2024, and Manchester City will also break through in 2025, and many clubs will also approach this figure (Paris Saint-Germain 989 million; Chelsea 969 million, Bayern 951.5 million), and Inter Milan, the best club in Italy, will not exceed 550 million euros even if it sets a historical record.

Stadium, team, talent: Everything stagnates or declines

2. Stadium: What has changed?

barely. From 2014 to the present, Juventus Arena remains the only large-scale sports facility built in Italy. There have been renovations in Udine (completed in 2016) and Bergamo (completed in 2024) and that’s all.

We are the world champions of renderings and projects on paper, but no brick has been laid for the construction of a new stadium since 2014, although during this period - we have won the right to host the 2032 European Cup in partnership with Turkey (and Türkiye is much better at the stadium than we do).

Our league continues to be played in outdated facilities that vividly represent the status quo of Italian football: a brilliant past, a stitched present.

3. Team and Talent: What has changed?

Very simple: We missed the 2018 World Cup and the 2022 World Cup, and in order to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, we have no room for mistakes and are very likely to need to pass the play-offs. The birthplace principle of the sport mentioned in the letter Agnelli still remains a vague political issue, and people talk a lot but do nothing. On the second team side, something happened, but it was slow: After Juventus (2018), Atlanta (2023) and AC Milan (2024) also formed second teams, and now Inter Milan's will also be launched. We are behind, but at least we can feel some movement.

At the same time, however, the proportion of foreign players in Serie A has risen from 57% in 2014 to 68% in 2025. As for the excessive number of professional clubs mentioned by Agnelli in that letter, 62 clubs have gone bankrupt since 2014.

is not a letter, but a warning. Italian football was punished for this, in short, it was not so much a letter to shareholders as a warning, but unfortunately it was not heard; or it was a prophecy, but it was tragically fulfilled. Furthermore, Agnelli has always had some ability to foresee the future, and some misfortune tendency to be ignored by institutions. But the core of the problem is not Agnelli at all, he pointed out the moon in 2014, but Italian football looked at his fingers, even aimed at it and gave it a heavy hammer. The core of the problem is that Italian football today finds itself facing exactly the same problems as it was a decade ago without taking any measures to solve at least one of them. Yes, Inter Milan reached the Champions League final twice, but this year it hit a bruised and swollen face in the face of Paris Saint-Germain's superior strength. Yes, we won the European Cup 2021 in a heroic and thrilling way.

And, yes, Atlanta won an Europa League (if we think about the 7 Champions League wins in 14 years from 1996 to 2010, how insignificant the comfort is. But if the Italian system cannot bridge the organizational, economic and technical gap, such results will become increasingly rare and accidental.

Let's talk about it again in 2035?