Serie A: Next Supercoppa not in Riyadh, Simonelli explains ADL | OneFootball

The president of Lega Serie A, Ezio Maria Simonelli, addressed several issues concerning Italian football, such as the Supercoppa in Saudi Arabia and the possible departure of Milan and Como to Australia.

Serie A, Simonelli: “The next Supercoppa will not be played in Riyadh, ADL on the steps? I’ll explain”

(ANSA) – ROME, DEC 29 – Farewell to Riyadh, and perhaps a return to a single final for the Supercoppa: this is the idea of Ezio Maria Simonelli, president of Serie A, who clarifies, however, that the decision must be made by the League Council. “We are no longer bound by the double semifinal format,” Simonelli said on Radio Anch’io Sport. “Next year, the Asian Cup will be played in Riyadh and the Saudis, even though they still have one edition under contract, have already said they will forgo it. We will be free to choose the location and format. My idea is to return to the classic formula: a single final between the league champion and the Coppa Italia winner. If we go back to the single final, the date could even be at the start of the season, as in the past. But these are decisions for the League Council, as is the location of the final.” Simonelli also responded to the controversy over Milan-Como in Perth, after the event was canceled. “I don’t want to get into a dispute with Sports Minister Abodi. To talk about superficiality when our offices have been in constant dialogue for months with the top levels of European and world football seems unfair to me; it’s a bit of exploiting the situation to tell the public what they want to hear.” “As a fan,” he added, “I can understand that playing a match 13,000 km away from us would have been unusual, penalizing for the fans, but it was not a decision by the League but by the clubs involved. The League simply brought several proposals to the table, and the one from Australia was by far the most advantageous. But the conditions then proved unworkable. In my opinion, from the beginning, the AFC did not want this match to be played. They didn’t want Italy to be the first to break this taboo, and the door was shut. From a commercial point of view, this is a missed opportunity.” But couldn’t the two matches between Milan and Como have been switched, playing the one at San Siro on January 15? “It’s not easy to fit these things in, even with the TV schedules. If that change wasn’t made, it’s because it was objectively difficult to do so. At this point,” Simonelli continued, “the match will be played at San Siro on the first available date. We’ll have to wait until January 31, when the Champions League playoffs will determine when San Siro will also be free from Inter, and one of those Wednesdays the match will be scheduled, as soon as possible.” The Serie A president also spoke about the national team playoffs for the World Cup.

“All the clubs are fully committed to helping Gattuso. Moving a matchday is very difficult, the schedule is very tight. The clubs have given their availability for the training camp. On our part, we will try to do everything possible to help the coach, he deserves it.” For 2026, in short, the hope is “that the national team will finally take us back to the World Cup and that we can have a World Cup worthy of our tradition.” Simonelli reiterated his idea to move evening matches to 8:00 pm (“but I have some doubts it will happen soon, there is strong resistance. The TV networks need to be convinced”), spoke about complaints regarding the orange ball (“not a good choice: we have received many justified complaints about this, there are people who cannot see it due to color blindness. We have asked our supplier to bring forward the delivery of new balls, but it will take some time”), and finally returned to the request to bring Serie A back to 18 teams. “It doesn’t concern just Serie A, but the entire professional football movement. On January 15, the federation has called a working group in Rome with the leagues on championship reforms.” In Riyadh, the photo of De Laurentiis sitting on the stadium steps and not in the VIP box next to the authorities sparked discussion. “Diplomatic blunder? No, absolutely not. He was in the royal box, he had given his seat to his daughter Valentina. He took a regular seat in the stands: being superstitious, at that moment he sat on the steps, and since the semifinal went well for Napoli, he preferred to always sit there. No offense taken.” (ANSA).

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.