Italian football federation president Gabriele Gravina has today addressed several questions being asked about the rest of the season in an interview with Italian radio station Radio 24 show ‘Tutto Convocati.’
He started by speaking on what UEFA’s decision to postpone the European Championship’s from this Summer to next means for Italian football.
“We now have a better chance of finding dates to finish games by June 30, we hope that it will be enough time,”he explained in the interview which took place earlier on today.
He was then asked about reports that UEFA want priority to be given to the Champions League and Europa League over domestic competitions.
“Our position emerged yesterday, the priority for us goes to the domestic competitions with the possibility of inserting windows for the Champions and Europa League to be played.
“We will give priority to our schedule without penalising anyone. We know that we might need to resort to format changes in case there is not enough dates for UEFA competitions.”
Gravina, who has been at the helm of FIGC since 2018, proceeded to reveal that they may ask to be allowed to carry on the season past June 30 if unable to complete it by then.
“UEFA has indicated several solutions, the most optimistic foresees football restarting on April 14 until June 13 with format changes.
“The Champions League final is scheduled for June 27, the Europa League final on June 24. It must be taken into account that UEFA has scheduled the playoffs for the final four places at the European Championship’s for early June and this complicates things.
“I do not take this solution into consideration though as it would really concern me. I am firmly convinced in pushing the accelerator of optimism and starting again but we think we can restart in early May.
“If we do not complete the season on June 30, we may to ask to go beyond and up to the middle of July. The Spanish football association also support this idea.
“If it is not possible to complete things normally, we will ask for a change in the format and have playoffs.”
Next he discussed the financial damage that football has suffered due to the current crisis situation which has caused several teams and leagues to lose significant amounts of revenue and the possibility of players taking wage cuts.
“Our world is experiencing a moment of great difficulty. We know that there has been a great impact socially and there are contractual agreements in place and we must limit the damage. There is talk of losses from €170-200 million up to €500-600 million.
“In times of emergency it [player’s taking pay cuts] cannot be a taboo, we must sit around a table and understand that the emergency applies to everyone and our world must incorporate the principles of mutuality and responsibility.”
