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At the Merger & Acquisition Summit of Il Sole 24 Ore, Inter’s president Giuseppe Marotta discussed Italian football.

Giuseppe Marotta, president of Inter, highlighted the evolution of football both from a sporting and corporate perspective, emphasizing the crucial role of foreign ownership in ensuring economic sustainability. Speaking at the Merger & Acquisition Summit of Il Sole 24 Ore, he recalled how in 2011 all teams were Italian, while today eight clubs are American and eleven are foreign, a sign of a change in the management model.

Marotta criticized the old system based on patronage, where owners covered losses without real attention to the balance sheets. Today, investors focus on sustainability and efficient management, as demonstrated by the Oaktree fund, which discreetly and intelligently supports Inter.

He then addressed the issue of stadiums, denouncing the bureaucratic difficulties in Italy compared to the rest of Europe, where 153 facilities have been built in the last ten years, compared to only three in Italy. Despite the obstacles, Inter and Milan remain ready to invest in a new stadium.

On a sporting level, Marotta reiterated the importance of facing current competitions well: Champions League, the league, and the future Club World Cup. He highlighted the economic gap with other leagues, especially in TV rights and matchday revenues, emphasizing that the new stadium is essential for the club’s growth and to offer fans an experience on par with the top European clubs.

Inter, Marotta’s Words

On the evolution of football

“I have seen an evolution from a footballing perspective but also from a ownership perspective. It is a world that has evolved and changed radically, not only in the sporting aspects that represent the core business but has changed in the corporate world. Fortunately, foreign ownership has arrived: imagine if there were no Zhang and Oaktree and the Elliott fund in Milan, we would have been in great difficulty.” This was stated by Inter’s president Giuseppe Marotta, speaking at the fifth edition of the Merger & Acquisition Summit organized by Il Sole 24 Ore.

On foreign ownership in the world of football

“There are eight American owners, eleven foreign owners, while in 2011 they were all Italian. Obviously, we have felt the effects of a situation of involution in the Italian entrepreneurial world. Before there was a patronage model, like Giovanni Borghi in Varese between basketball and football. What is the difference? Back then there were no cfo and ceo, back then there was the accountant. At the end of the season, the owner went to the accountant, ‘how much did we lose?’ and they balanced it out, giving more importance to the sporting result than to the financial aspect.”

On economic sustainability

“Today, fortunately, we are in a different situation, also for ethical reasons. In football today, a lot of money is circulating, players earn a lot and they should scale back. Today, there is an investment fund that does not come to Italy to dispense money but makes sustainability the main goal. I have a relationship with a fund that, I must compliment them, arrived on tiptoe, guaranteeing sustainability immediately but is present in a silent manner that makes the management work well. They have confirmed the entire sports area, with an intelligent approach. We relate to them daily with their continuous presence in discussions on the management, financial, and administrative aspects. Today, we are also facing two companies that are following an important path such as the creation of a stadium.”

On delegations

“Did they leave me all the delegations? In Turin, I had the opportunity to meet perhaps the greatest post-war manager, Sergio Marchionne. He said that a top manager has two rights, to choose the company’s values and to choose the people to work with. I must say that Oaktree is behaving like this, in terms of delegations, the daily confrontation with them is especially important when there are important decisions, but giving delegations also means giving responsibilities. Sometimes I see that young people struggle to decide. I have always had the delegation to be able to decide, it is a fundamental prerequisite for working: I could never work without having the delegations.”

On bureaucratic delays in building stadiums

“In the last 10 years, 153 stadiums in Europe, three in Italy. The bureaucratic process is complicated in our country. The day after we submitted the purchase proposal, there was a report to the Prosecutor’s Office that rightly took action. We face different situations that are far from actual investment. Inter and Milan are willing to invest heavily even though Italy is the only country where there is no help from the State. I am skeptical mainly about the process, there are deadlines to respect because investors can wait but not for long.”

On Inter’s commitments

“As president, the important thing is to be present at the right time. Today we are, we are in three competitions and in June a new one will begin like the Club World Cup. The first one starts tomorrow with the first leg semi-final against Milan, then there is the league with a three-point advantage that means nothing and then the Champions League against Bayern. The ownership has not overhauled a winning team and we have continued on our virtuous path so we are in a good position. We will try to face everything in the best way, but we have already achieved a first economic objective as participation in these tournaments guarantees us a certain tranquility.”

On revenues related to competitions

“We played 10 Champions League matches with about 100 million. In the best-case scenario, winning the league gives us about 95 million with 38 matches. Today we need to find harmony between the Italian system and the global system. This is the great difficulty, but harmony needs to be found without controversy. Today the negative gap compared to Europe is in TV rights, the second is related to matchday revenues, where our competitors are ahead of us by 60/70 million. This is where the desire for a new stadium comes from, to give an asset to the club but also to provide the container that fans deserve.”