More and more football teams are disappearing due to Professional National Championship failures. Sometimes the reasons are not related to football, while other times they are caused by society’s bad team management. Few capital gains' revenues derive from young skilled players, who would be useful to save money in order to buy other clubs’ footballers, especially the foreign ones. “Homemade” products are, indeed, the right way to reintroduce Italian football which is fading little by little. Tavecchio & co. have been working hard on these matters and, for this reason, I feel that the 2015/2016 season will be the start of a new age for the major league and the Italian professional football.
At last, indeed, in our championship young footballers will have more chances of staying in the shortlist of the team in which they developed and will run fewer risks of being left in a lower category society or in other lower valued championship than ours. Therefore, in the current season, football had to face the so-called “Save-Italy Decree” referring to the composition of football teams.
The entire football movement, which must believe in our “gifted youngsters”, will unavoidably pay more attention to young footballers. The people responsible for the young sector and their trainers will need to work hard and will have to be extremely competent in order to build future athletes, that is, those who will occupy the 8 valuable places made available by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC).
Let us analyze the reform, by considering the official statement N. 83/A (attached below), in order to understand the reason of such a change.
Major league’s lists will have to be completely made of 25 “over 21” players, of which 4 will have to be “formed in the club” and at least other 4 “formed in Italy”.
“Players formed in the club” are players between 15 years old (or at the start of the season they turned 15) and 21 years old (or at the end of the season they turned 21), who have subscribed permanently in the club they are part of, for a span that does not have to be of 36 month in a row, or for three whole sport seasons.
Shortlists, then, could be made of other unlimited under 21 (players who on the 31st of December of the previous sport season have not turned 21 yet). In case societies did not reach the minimum amount of “players formed in Italy or in their club”, even Under 21 players could be included in the lists, but they would occupy a place in the 25 players’ list.
In the 2015/2016 season, major league societies which did not reach the minimum amount of 4 players formed in their club could include a maximum of 8 players formed in Italy in the 25 Under 21 list.
Major league societies have to communicate the 25 footballers' list to the league by 12 pm of the day preceding the first challenge. These footballers will have to be among those who have subscribed to the club or those who have already requested the transfer and, for this reason, have not subscribed yet.
However, the list is adjustable. Effectively, the 25 “over 21” list can be changed up to 12 am of the day following the summer market session closure. The list can be changed again from the beginning of the January market to 12 am of the day following the winter market session closure.
Major league societies, in every moment of the season, can make the following changes in the 25 players' list:
- The substitution of a goalkeeper for another goalkeeper;
- The substitution of a foreign player whose transfer procedure has not been successful;
- The substitution of a footballer whose subscription has been revoked;
- The substitution of a player whose contract has terminated;
- The substitution, only once in the season, of a maximum of two players (not the goalkeeper) for two other players.
Strict penalties are provided against anyone who did not respect the above mentioned regulations. Indeed, in a championship challenge, the use of an athlete who is not part of the 25 footballers' list will implicate the immediate defeat for the responsible society.
As far as the second league is concerned, the 2013/2014 bush league introduced the Salary Cup, that is, the establishment of a salary cap at 300,000 euros. Should a society exceed this limitation, a penalty in relation to the subtraction of the concerning mutuality, which is calculated impartially with regard to the exceeded portion, would be imposed.
The money collected from these penalties is divided as follows: 50% to societies which respect salary cap parameters; 50% is owed to the first eight Spring (Primavera), National Young Athletes (Allievi Nazionali) and Very Young Athletes (Giovanissimi Nazionali) teams.
In the 2015/2016 season, new limitations to the composition of the shortlist were introduced therefore no more than 18 “over 21” players, 2 flag players and an unlimited number of under 21 can suscribe to societies.
“Flag players” are those who have been members of a club for at least 4 years, including the years spent in the young sector. These rules will inevitably affect the bush league teams’ market.
In spite of the different number of players, the same can be said about Pro league teams, to which a maximum of 24 professional footballers can be subscribed, and 8 of them have to be Under 21.
Only by respecting these limitations will the teams be able to access the League subsidies for the time spent in the football field. For those who arrange less players, between 5 and 8, subsidies will be reduced, while contributions will be completely denied if less than 5 players will be used.
Another piece of news concerns the subscription to the next championships: the 600,000 euros suretyship will be reduced to 400,000, while the remaining 200,000 will be deposited by the League itself. Furthermore, the suretyship will be further reduced to 100,000 if the salaries will not exceed a million euros, 50,000 if they will be between 1 and 2 million euros.
Overall, there are many “innovations” in professional football thanks to a reform which has given an essential role to the young sector and the youngsters that are part of it.