Beyond the financial disputes, De Laurentiis believes the product on the pitch is failing to capture the attention of Gen Z. To combat this, he has proposed a drastic shift in the format of a match, moving away from the traditional 45-minute halves in favour of a system more commonly seen in the NBA.
“We have to renew everything, the kids grew up with phones, they go very fast: they have passion but not patience,” he explained. “They can see a game for two hours only if they are at the stadium. We could divide the two halves, maybe 25 minutes and 25 minutes consecutive with effective time as in basketball! Today in football the referees decide how much to recover, I fight with the FIGC because in the referees there is a certain anarchy. It’s not good, especially for the sport! Football is an industry and they don’t understand it. We invest so much money, too many people talk.”