One pitch, two matches: football and my story | OneFootball

Giuseppe Marotta’s Lectio Magistralis aims to analyse the deep transformations in Italian and European football over the past few decades through an autobiographical journey. The piece follows a timeline that connects key points of Giuseppe Marotta’s management career with turning points that redefined football in an economic, legal, social, and cultural way. His journey began in 1966, the year in which the CONI required Serie A and B clubs to transform into joint-stock companies, a decision which marked the start of the modernisation of Italian football. In this climate of increasing professionalism, Giuseppe Marotta took his first steps into the sporting world, joining the organisational board of Varese Calcio (the club of his birth town), before then becoming Sporting Director at just 23 years old.

In the eighties, while Italian football was experiencing the liberalisation of sponsorships and the introduction of the Professionalism Act (1981), Giuseppe Marotta enhanced his managerial experiences at Varese by moving to Monza Calcio and becoming Director General in 1986, the period in which the modern model of entrepreneurship began to emerge. In the nineties, two important revolutions took place in football: the Mammì Law of 1990, which liberalised the TV and radio sector and transformed TV rights into a source of strategic revenue, and the Bosman ruling of 1995, which opened the European market to the free movement of players and favoured a new transnational dimension of competitions. During this decade, Giuseppe Marotta had hands-on experience with different clubs as Director General of Como, Ravenna, and finally Venezia, with whom he earned promotion to Serie A in 1998, after a 30-year-long wait.

With the new millennium, the theme of economic sustainability took centre stage in European football. With the arrival of Financial Fair Play in 2009 beckoning, Giuseppe Marotta gained further experience as Director General of Atalanta before then becoming Director General and Managing Director of Sampdoria (2002-2010), earning promotion to the top division and historic qualification to the preliminary stages of the UEFA Champions League. New economic challenges during these years were echoed in his managerial approach, based on financial balance and the enhancement of available resources. His experience as Managing Director of Juventus (2010-2018) coincided with a new era of Italian football: the inauguration of the Juventus Stadium (2011) marked the beginning of the new model of stadiums as strategic assets, symbols of identity, and structural sources of revenue. In this context, under Giuseppe Marotta’s management, the Bianconeri began an unprecedented winning streak which combined sporting competitiveness and organisational solidity, restoring stability, modern management, and a leading role in Italy and Europe to the club.

In 2021, with the announcement of the Super League, an important debate was opened surrounding the future of football, stimulating collective reflection on the delicate balance between economic interests and principles of solidarity and meritocracy that have historically characterised this sport. As Inter’s CEO since 2018, Marotta has been a key part of this new phase, while also bringing the Nerazzurri back to the elite of Italian and European football. On 4 June 2024, with the ownership passing onto Oaktree Capital Management, Marotta was named the club’s Chairman, still keeping his existing role as CEO and overseer of sports activities. Being named chairman not only represents the crowning of an almost 50-year-long career, but also the product of modern football, requiring leaders capable of combining strategic vision, continuity, and sustainability. Through this cross-analysis, this Lectio Magistralis shows how Giuseppe Marotta’s career is deeply linked to the evolution of modern football: from local clubs to the top of European football, his experiences prove his ability to adapt to changes throughout time, transforming them into opportunities for professional growth.

The award of the honorary degree not only celebrates the individual success of Giuseppe Marotta, but it also pays homage to the value of football as a social and cultural phenomenon: a sport that reflects changes in society, creates collective identity, and promotes values of belonging, education, and continuous innovation.