Italy's Serie A clubs plan to break away from the
second-tier Serie B and create their own independent top flight,
similar to England's Premier League.
All but Lecce of the 20 clubs in Serie A issued a statement on
Thursday saying they would be breaking away to set up the "Serie A
football league."
"We've made a new first division," Palermo president Maurizio
Zamparini told ANSA news agency. "Am I satisfied? No, but it is
necessary."
Clubs such as Juventus, Inter Milan and AC Milan have long
campaigned for greater autonomy and have looked enviously at
England's Premier League, which created a financial revolution that
made its clubs the richest in the world after it broke away from
England's Football League in 1992.
Italian clubs have come in for scathing criticism after only
Udinese, in the UEFA Cup, reached the quarterfinals of a European
competition this season. In response, clubs have said they are
unable to compete with the wages offered by English and Spanish
sides.
Maurizio Beretta, a former journalist, has been chosen to set up
the new league, the statement said.
"The mandate is clear," he told reporters. "To start building a
first division. There are various aspects to sort out. The
mechanism will be put in place over the next 12 months."
AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani told ANSA: "We will
start work on this league straight away, because it has to be in
operation by July 1, 2010. We have told the president of the
Italian federation."