More focus on youth teams, fewer teams in Serie A and Serie B, and a crackdown on agents: the Democratic Party’s recipe for…

“This proposal does not aspire to be ‘the’ reform of Italian football. It aspires to be, more realistically, a systemic intervention.” This is the premise of a bill presented by the Democratic Party (PD) at Palazzo Madama and reviewed by Agi. It bears the initial signature of Democratic Party group leader Francesco Boccia and is endorsed by all senators.

Among the proposals put forward are a reduction in the number of teams in Serie A and Serie B, stricter requirements for verifying the financial sustainability of football clubs, and a cap on compensation for sports agents “at 5 percent of the player’s gross annual salary.” Investments in youth teams, a better distribution of TV rights, tax breaks for stadium renovations, “sports vouchers” for families with an ISEE (Equivalent Economic Situation Indicator) of less than €15,000, and measures to support the integration of foreign resident minors are some of the other main proposals from the Democrats, who, among other things, note “the glaring absence of second-generation citizens born and raised in Italy by foreign parents in youth teams and national football teams. This absence is unmatched in other Italian sports or in other European national football teams.”

The bill emphasizes: “The comparison between Italian sports is clear: Italian track and field, volleyball, and basketball are deeply integrated national teams, where second-generation athletes are protagonists and medalists. The comparison with other European national teams is even more stark: the French national team that won the 2018 World Cup was made up of over 70 percent second- and third-generation athletes, the Belgian team was about 50 percent, and the English, German, and Swiss teams consistently had percentages above 30 percent.”

The causes, it is noted, are primarily two: a financial barrier to access to soccer schools, with average registration fees that, added to equipment and transportation costs, exceed €1,500, effectively excluding low-income families; and a procedural regulatory barrier. Hence the proposal to include four mandatory principles in the federal regulations: decentralization of the investigation to regional or provincial committees; documentation limited to that required for Italian minors; a thirty-day deadline with tacit consent; and a ban on further formalities. The Democrats’ analysis in the bill begins with a scathing snapshot of Italian soccer, highlighting “a crisis of talent, youth development, soccer schools, and integration.” The third consecutive failure to qualify for the World Cup (2018, 2022, and 2026) cannot be dismissed as the result of episodic contingencies. Rather, it is the result of a system in which eligible Italian players under 21 play just 1.9 percent of the minutes in Serie A, placing Italy 49th out of 50 in the rankings. Of the 284 players who played at least 30 minutes per match in the 2025/2026 Serie A season, only 89 are Italian, 10 of whom are goalkeepers. The crisis in the men’s Serie A championship is also highlighted, resulting in a crisis in the competitive value of the product. Serie A no longer attracts solid investors, nor international-level players in the prime of their careers. The figures are merciless: €730 million in annual losses, €5.5 billion in overall debt, 194 clubs excluded from professional leagues since 1986, and 519 penalty points imposed over the last thirteen years. On the commercial front, the value of audiovisual rights awarded on the domestic market has fallen by 7.5 percent from its 2018-2021 peak, at a time when the English Premier League and the Spanish La Liga maintained or increased their values; on the international market, between 2015 and 2025, Serie A recorded an increase of just over 30 percent, compared to 260 percent for the Premier League and 160 percent for La Liga.

The Need for a Legislative Response

Hence the need for a legislative response. “The two crises require radically different responses: for the first, structural investments in both men’s and women’s youth development programs, in football schools, in local facilities, as well as measures to support the integration of foreign minors; for the second, quality of infrastructure, regulatory certainty for investors, and the economic and financial sustainability of clubs.”

The Three Axis of the Bill

The bill “is structured along three main lines: positive rewards for clubs that train and promote young Italian footballers; the refinancing of the Fund for Professionalism in Women’s Sports; structural funding of the football system through the fight against audiovisual piracy and the strengthening of the so-called “dignity decree” regarding protection from addiction.