The Lega Serie A assembly voted in favor of maintaining the championship with 20 teams. Only four clubs - namely Inter, Juventus, Milan and Roma - voted in favor of the new 18-team format, with 16 votes instead agreeing to remain with 20 teams.
In the same meeting, the Lega Serie A asserted its right of veto over any FIGC reforms that could also affect the top football league.
«The Lega Serie A, we read in a note, approved during the meeting its own policy document containing the proposals for the reform of Italian football». Furthermore, "the absolute need to maintain the right of agreement in the federal statute was reiterated, as is the case in the main European football systems".
«The right of agreement is decisive. Serie A must be able to self-determine on its own. The problems of Italian football are not the transition to 16, 18 or 22 teams", commented Cagliari president Tommaso Giulini on the sidelines of the meeting. «This - added the rossoblù owner justifying the Sardinian club's no to the new format - is a model that today struggles to be sustainable, we have proposed a package of reforms and I hope we will talk about it soon, because in our opinion this is the way. Taking away our right to agree only to carry out a reform that risks being an end in itself, and does not increase the sustainability of a system, is not the way."
After the meeting, rumors began to circulate about Giuseppe Marotta's possible resignation as federal councilor. In this regard, Giulini states: «I don't know these rumors, this request was not made. I consider Marotta, like Galliani, one of the best managers of the last decades, so in this case he would not have seen me favorably. Certainly going today to represent a request with only two other teams (Juventus and Milan, in addition to Inter, ed.) to change the format, from 20 to 18, without addressing the fundamental issues, I don't agree with. But that's not why I would have asked for anyone's resignation, much less Marotta."
(Unioneonline/lf)
