Italy's Serie A faces 500 million euro revenue shortfall - league boss

Italy's top-flight soccer league has lost more than 500 million euros in revenues due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the head of Italy's Serie A said on Monday, warning the industry was in dire straits.

To contain the Covid-19 pandemic, Italy's government has rejected a proposal to allow more spectators at sporting events, including lifting the current limit of 1 000 spectators at Serie A football matches to fill a quarter of stadium capacity.

"As of now, Serie A is experiencing a shortfall of more than 500 million euros", Serie A Chief Executive Luigi De Siervo told Italian state broadcaster Rai, blaming a lack of matchday revenue and a drop in sponsorship deals.

"The whole system is on the verge of collapse," he added, calling on the government to consider gradually increasing the cap on football fans at matches.

Matchday revenues account for around 11 per cent of Serie A clubs' 2.5 billion euro aggregated yearly revenues, whose bulk is made up by broadcasting rights sales.

But this source of income is also shrinking because broadcasters around the world respond to lower advertising revenues by cutting spending on media rights deals.

In an effort to cushion the impact of the pandemic on debt-laden clubs, Serie A is considering selling a minority stake in a newly created company handling the League's broadcasting rights for 10 seasons.

Two rival private equity consortia led by CVC Capital Partners and Bain Capital are vying for a 10 per cent stake.

De Siervo said Serie A clubs would meet at the latest by 10 October to review the bids.