Di Benedetto Delivering for Roma

Sound plans: Thomas Di Benedetto

When Roma's American owners took over in the summer, many were sceptical of their enthusiasm's stamina.  Thomas Di Benedetto, the senescent cherub from the United States who is now the club's president, arrived with plans of making Roma a global brand.  Given the horrific mismanagement of the Sensi family, which had left the club lumbered with debt, Di Benedetto had his work cut out for him.  There was also, of course, the debilitating Italian bureaucracy with which to contend.

Almost a year on, however, Di Benedetto is doing all the right things despite the obstacles.  I have written in the past about Di Benedetto's effort to work with the city council, and recently there has been some progress.

As reported on their official website, Roma recently commissioned the consulting company Cushman & Wakefield to pick a suitable place to build a stadium for the club.  Il Tempo reported that the selected area is Tor Di Valle with 2016 set as the year in which to unveil the new stadium. In the meantime, Corriere Dello Sport reported on Wednesday that Roma have reached an agreement with CONI, which will see them stay at the Stadio Olimpico until 2015, with enhancements to the corporate hospitality areas.

All of these developments come in addition to Roma's recent deal with Disney, which is expected to boost revenues through merchandising.  Roma already saw a 20 million euros boost in revenue last year notwithstanding the fact that they didn't even play in the Champions League.  The future looks promising for the club.

In October, Di Benedetto had said that people "did not understand" where he was taking the club.  Given how things are evolving, one has to praise his ambition.  Despite Legge Crimi being stuck, Di Benedetto has decided to move forward in earnest.

The Criminal Dithering Over Legge Crimi

Rocco Crimi

Imagine that Italian football clubs are suddenly allowed to build privately owned, modern stadia, so that they can capitalize on match-day revenue by not having to pay city councils for rent.  Imagine also that by doing so, clubs expand their revenue sources and effectively compete with the other clubs in Europe, which have long enjoyed privately owned stadia.

Private ownership of stadia seems eminently pragmatic, does it not? Even in the chaotic world of Italian football and politics, where equanimity may not always prevail, many have at least come to recognize that it does. The Secretary of Sport, Rocco Crimi, proposed a law known as Legge Crimi, which aims to allow clubs to take exclusive ownership of stadia, which in turn would mean they could build new venues or improve the current ones.  Further, the gate receipts from matches would go entirely  to the clubs, and not towards the cost of renting stadia from city councils.  The Italian Senate approved the law in late 2009, but it is still awaiting approval from Parliament.

In March 2010, Crimi lamented the chronically neglected state of stadia in Italy, and emphasized the importance for clubs to diversify their financial portfolio:

"With their resources club presidents will be able to build better stadia than our current ones.  This way we would avoid the situation in which the State pours money into stadium infrastructure, like they did for the World Cup in 1990, and then not continue to invest. [. . .] Italian clubs currently earn 65% of their revenues from TV rights.  They should have more sources of revenue."

It is now August 2011, and the law is still yet to be passed.  On July 7, 2011, Crimi said that work is being done to bring the law to fruition.  The excessive deliberation over a law that seems absolutely essential for Italian football highlights the political listlessness of the country.  The delay also lends credence to Adriano Galliani's perennial cries of the decline of Italian football.  Just yesterday, the Milan vice-president likened Italian football to a "pizzeria" when compared to the more opulent "restaurants" of other footballing countries in Europe, like Spain, England, and Germany. One of the major causes of this disparity, Galliani claims, is the stadia issue.  Many rebuke him for his seemingly pathological pessimism, but Galliani is just delivering the bitter truth of Italian football.  It does, after all, seem reasonable to listen to a man who has been a part of Milan's success for twenty-five years.

Without the new law, clubs have to try and negotiate the ownership of stadia with city councils eager to maintain the status quo for financial gain.  The councils do little to modernize the stadia, but still demand exorbitant fees from clubs to rent them.  As I recently wrote, Juventus have taken the right steps and invested in a new stadium by demolishing the old Stadio delle Alpi.  Palermo are now also building their own stadium, the construction of which will start in 2012.  However, these clubs have been fortunate in that they have found their city councils to be less obstinate than others.

The Legge Crimi needs to come into effect as quickly as possible so that all Italian clubs can have the opportunity to maximize revenue from their stadia.  Without the law, Italian football does not stand a chance.