Serie A introduce new bail-out rules for clubs after last year’s Parma incident

The Italian football federation and Carlo Tavecchio, the FIGC president, said new rules are being introduced to ensure a Parma-like financial crisis cannot happen again with another club in the future.

Parma finished bottom of Serie A last season after struggling to pay their bills, including the players’ wages. Marco Vasini / AP Photo

The Italian football federation (FIGC) says there will be no repeat of last season’s case involving Parma who were bailed out by the organisation to avoid automatically losing their Serie A place due to money problems.

Carlo Tavecchio, the FIGC president, said new rules are being introduced to ensure a Parma-like financial crisis cannot happen again with another club in the future.

Parma, who have been declared bankrupt and will play in an amateur league this term, eventually finished bottom of Serie A after struggling all season to pay their bills, including the players’ wages.

The FIGC set up an emergency fund so that Parma could fulfil their fixtures after the club postponed two games because they could not pay security staff.

“A new Parma episode cannot happen,” Tavecchio said. “This year we have introduced rules which will apply in the future and next year will be the year of reckoning. Clubs must prepare financially viable statements. In four years we will have a proper spending review and a balanced budget. Italian football cannot go on the way things are.”

Serie A was once regarded as Europe’s strongest league but has faltered badly over the past few seasons as clubs struggle to match the financial muscle of their English, Spanish and German counterparts.

In response, Italian clubs have curbed spending.

Tavecchio said a change in attitude was the way forward for Italian football to progress.

“The organisation of Italian football is going through a period of great restructuring,” he said.

“Important decisions have been taken but I would be arrogant if I said that we will come to wipe out this gap” with other European leagues “within a couple of years.”

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