Lega Serie A President Paolo Dal Pino has hit back at claims from Amanda Staveley that she preferred to invest in Newcastle United over either of the Milan clubs because of the state of the league.
Staveley is part of the consortium that acquired Newcastle United recently and they certainly have a huge financial backing. There have been some rumours that the fund were looking at acquiring a Serie A club, and now the statements released to The Times regarding the interest of the PIF group confirms that speculation.
Staveley – the managing director of the PCP Capital Partners fund – revealed on Friday that there were talks held over the potential purchase of Milan and Inter but she described the structure of Italian football as a ‘disaster’ which put the group off investing, hence why they went for Newcastle.
Dal Pino couldn’t resist jumping to the defence of Serie A after Staveley’s provocation as he questioned her ambition in taking over a club such as Newcastle.
“We have 8 foreign owners, 7 American and one Chinese who believed in Serie A & that there is potential for growth. If Ms Staveley preferred to invest in Newcastle over Inter or Milan, you can see that she likes small cars and not F1 cars,” he said (via MilanEye).
“When you invest, you look at the potential of the company and the market in which you operate. When you look at Italian football you see that it is a great opportunity, because it has unexpressed potential like no other league.”
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She isn’t wrong tbh
Small car has 52,000 passengers, great big Italian car average 30,000. Questionable logic.
@Kevin Moore, u sure sound logical right?
Unless there are also fans worldwide. How many Newcastle United fans out of Newcastle?
How many Man City fans outside of Manchester before the sheikhs took over? How many PSG fans outside of Paris? Both of these clubs were basically non-existent before they got taken over. Even Chelsea wasn’t a big club before Abramovich. So yeah, invest in a club that sells out its 52,000 seats every game in a league where stadiums sell out every weekend and has a multibillion pound TV deal, with 3-4 clubs that can win the Champions League any given year.
she is sure crazy enough to waste money on club that on verge of relegation
Man. U have been relegated, now worth billions. Seems a logical investment to an astute business person which the lady in question has proved to be.
This moron clearly is blind af. He can’t see that Serie-A is wayyyy behind EPL, La-Liga, Bundesliga, and even France League.
So that’s the point. When you invest you buy when it is cheap. More potential profit when the league goes back to top which will happen one day. Crisis is an opportunity. Even in sports.
@Shal
You got it wrong. The problem isn’t the clubs but the LEAGUE and the operators / FIGC itself.
For examples, Serie-A clubs doesn’t have good TV revenue. The data shows that TV revenue / rights for Inter -last year scudetto- was 65 millions euros. Meanwhile, TV revenue for Sheffield United was 123 millions euros!!!
Why Inter had smaller TV revenue than a no name EPL club like Sheffield United who got relegated?
That’s why many big Investors choose EPL over Serie-A is because they can get much much better results if they invest in EPL compare to Serie-A.
Even if Milan won Champions League 10 times, Serie-A will ALWAYS BEHIND EPL, La Liga, and other Top EU leagues if this stupid president still thinking Serie-A doesn’t need a change 🙁
If I were a billionaire I would buy AC Milan, then sign the most popular player from China, and the most popular player from India. Even if they are both trash. Then I would get best TV cast and merch sales in both countries. And it would also turn their domestic fans from other clubs to AC Milan.
When Asian player comes to European club entire country becomes fans of the club. And due Asian clubs don’t play in Europe it doesn’t create contraversions. You never play against their clubs and you’re good to go.
Good example is Shomurodov and Roma. Entire 50 million Uzbekistan became Roma’s fan army now. They are commenting on every video with Roma, even they never heard of the club before.
Lol that’s why you’re not a billionaire or even millionaire right now 😂😂😂
This is why Serie A continues to be behind the other leagues….this old school mentality. Stadium ownership, TV rights, racism, etc….are just some of the reasons Italy (which was once the best league in the world in the 90’s) is now behind England, Germany and Spain….They still don’t get it. Newcastle will be the next Man City or PSG is 3-4 seasons….as $$$$ is everything in world football unfortunately.