Former Milan chief Adriano Galliani has called for a new Super League without any English sides, as he pointed to Scottish football as a clear example that change is needed.
As the right-hand man of Silvio Berlusconi, the current Monza CEO helped turn the Rossoneri into a dominant European force, winning five Champions League titles during the former Prime Minister's ownership.
The pair are back in the Italian top flight having bought into Monza and earned them promotion, but Galliani sees a huge problem with the European landscape - and he pointed to the bumper crowds of Celtic and Rangers to illustrate his point.
The former head of the Lega Serie A told Tuttosport: “Football has changed, and it’s born of the Bosman ruling and TV rights. That’s what’s really changed football.
“How? Let’s talk about the 60s: a club’s revenue was solely and exclusively from the box office, there wasn’t any other way of sustaining yourself. And if you’re only selling tickets then 60,000 in Madrid is worth the same as 60,000 in Lisbon or Glasgow.
“Then came the television rights, the English league gets £4bn and the Scottish league gets £100m so it’s clear that – with parity in the 60,000 fans – things have changed quite a bit.
“The revenues that were once similar become vastly different and as a result the champions go where the money is, because football is based on those revenues.
“The 20 English clubs bring in almost four times that which the 20 Serie A teams do. Monza get €33m in television rights, of which we have to give €3m to Serie B. In total: €30m.
“A newly-promoted team in the Premier League banks €160m. How are we supposed to compete with Nottingham Forest?”
It was such tensions which led, in part, to the aborted European Super League project which was launched in 2021 but quickly abandoned.
However, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus are fighting a court battle to try and establish that UEFA has an illegal monopoly over the game – potentially opening the door for another attempt.
Galliani, who was CEO at Milan for the glory years of Berlusconi, is not opposed to such an idea – but he says no English clubs should be involved.
He explained: “It could be a solution, but without the English. There has to be a Brexit in football too. Who is going to get the English to give up €4bn a year, plus stadiums that are always full?
“It would therefore be a real European league, without the English. That’s the other thing: do you think that in April 2021 the English exited the Super League because the fans didn’t want it? Come on!
“It’s because they didn’t want to leave that financial situation.
“Then there’s UEFA and this 70 per cent stuff. You can only spend 70 per cent of what you earn… if that had been the rule when we bought Milan then that great Milan team would never have existed.
“So it just amplifies things, because those who get more can spend more, therefore they’ll receive more in the future. Just like in society the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Also because winning brings in revenue with sponsorships and season ticket money – and football is played on the balance sheet.”
