Napoli – Aurelio De Laurentiis is back to talking about football reform, pointing the finger at the excessive number of matches and a system he says has become unsustainable for the players. Speaking to Class CNBC from the United States, the Napoli president relaunched a radical proposal: drastically reducing the schedule and revising the structure of the national teams.
"Europe must change; the time has come," De Laurentiis declared. "Football's top brass doesn't want to do it because they're afraid of losing their comfortable seats. But we need new rules and a different league format. There's too much gambling going on: players can't play 50, 60, or even 70 games a year."
The Azzurri boss, long a critic of the management of international fixtures, then proposed limiting the age of those eligible for national team call-ups, with the aim of giving more space to young players and protecting clubs: "For national team players," he explained, "an age limit would be needed: after 23, players should no longer be eligible for call-ups.
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De Laurentiis then criticized the current compensation system awarded to clubs for using their players in international competitions: "There's no respect for the leagues, nor is there adequate compensation for loaning players. We pay salaries twelve months a year, and they only give us a chip, when what we need—he joked—is a chip, a chop, and a chap."
The Italian president's words thus reignite the debate on the international calendar, already at the center of clashes between clubs, federations, and football bodies, in a context in which the proliferation of tournaments—including leagues, cups, Nations Leagues, and Club World Cups—continues to raise controversy and concerns about the physical and economic sustainability of modern football.
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