In a brutally honest talk at VareseNews.it‘s Glocal 2020 journalism festival this afternoon, Inter chief executive Giuseppe ‘Beppe’ Marotta has discussed the current situation that football is in as a consequence of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic has hit us violently, generating fear, and this has spilled over onto the field. I’ll give you an example: we found ourselves playing Juventus-Inter behind closed doors, and we weren’t used to it,” he said.
“There was inexperience in all areas. It was an extraordinary negative phenomenon. The first goal was to secure all professionals, including footballers. We did it with a protocol agreed by all, which gave guarantees. The other goal was to ensure sustainability. I would have made a larger break.”
Marotta then went on to explain the current situation that Italian football finds itself in and the risks that are there due to the situation at the moment, including the potential of defaulting.
“The situation for Italian football was and is devastating. We are facing a default. We held the first meetings in the League with advisors such as Deloitte to estimate the damage figures and see what the scenario would be in the short and medium term, the situation was and is devastating.”
He then spoke further on the financial side of things and how clubs, including Inter, have been impacted financially due to the situation.
“The big problem that football has today is that the cost of labour is disproportionate to the turnover that is made. Today we are faced with a turnover that has actually decreased given the absence of box office revenues, which have an impact on the budget of about €50 million, of sponsor revenues that have begun to run away and to reduce investments and finally the issue of TV rights.”
The former Juventus executive then spoke on how the situation could potentially be remedied.
“All of this has happened in the face of the fact that shareholders in recent years have recapitalised for approximately €2.5 billion. Previously, the normal loss was around €700 million per year. Today there is a much more serious situation ahead.
“The remedies? The only disproportionate cost is the cost of labour, as it accounts for about 50%. Either we are all together and unambiguous decisions are made, so not club by club, or we are facing a dramatic situation from an economic and financial point of view. Today we have to face the salaries.”
Marotta, who has held his role of chief executive at Inter since the end of 2018, was then asked about the possibility of government intervention to help the situation.
“The remedy is certainly not asking for money from the state, it is unthinkable but we are one of the largest taxpayers, we pay about €1-1.2 billion in contributory tax revenue, but it is not highlighted.
“What we would like is to have at least one tax deferral. We want to be considered as one of the largest taxpayers which we really are.
“We manage a world that has at least 7,000 professionals within it. There are 3,000 professional footballers, we are talking about a business world. Inter alone has 300 employees.
“We must be considered more by the Government, not in terms of contributions of money or financing but simply to allow us to breathe and modulate payments of the season in a different way.”
He concluded by sharing what he believes is the only remedy to the current situation.
“Reducing the cost of labour is the only remedy. Today we must think not only of increasing revenues, but also about limiting costs.
“The cost of labour represents 70% of turnover and there is no company in any sector that can hold up such a high labour cost, it means failing unless you find a patron or debt. Through better management of the cost of labour we would have already solved a big problem.”