Italy established the legislation in 2019, but now it is being terminated.
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00:00 Italian football's secret weapon is being taken away, just as they were once again competitive on the European stage.
00:07 So, will the removal of the growth decree be a burden, or could it encourage homegrown talent to flourish?
00:14 Hello there and welcome to Football Now from Doha.
00:21 Back in the 90s and the noughties, some of the best football players in the world used to call Italy their home.
00:28 But just as other leagues began to dwarf Serie A financially, the government passed a piece of legislation that has become a secret superpower for the domestic league in recent times.
00:38 Now though, four years later, it is being scrapped.
00:41 So, what is the growth decree and what impact has it had on Italian football?
00:46 The Decreto Crescita, or growth decree in English, was a legislation passed in 2019 to boost the stuttering Italian economy.
00:55 With the country suffering from a brain drain in all industries, not just football, the bill offered a 50% tax discount for anyone earning inside the highest income bracket.
01:05 They needed to have been a resident outside of Italy for the previous two years and commit to working in the country for a further minimum of two years to qualify.
01:14 So, it comes to the footballing benefits of the growth decree, they're kind of massive.
01:18 I'm sure you've heard it many times, but Serie A is a league very much financially constrained.
01:23 The TV deal isn't as lucrative as it once was. There's lots of operational debt within the league.
01:27 So, when legislation like this kind of comes along, it's kind of like a lifeline for them.
01:31 These savings are by and large a big part of the reason why they can attract and hold on to the talent that they have from overseas,
01:37 like Jose Mourinho, Tony Abraham, Romelu Lukaku, and then like Rafael Leal and Teo Andres.
01:43 There's already been quite a large effect on Roma.
01:45 Specifically, you know, up until the end of last year, it seemed like Jose was probably ambling towards a new contract.
01:50 And I know results kind of did turn and it's Jose Mourinho at the end of the day.
01:54 But I suspect the ending of the growth decree and the money that that will now cost them and missing Champions League football
02:00 probably just kind of tips Jose's financial demands into the round for them.
02:04 I don't think that could really justify signing a new contract without the benefits of the decree.
02:08 So, at this point, you may be wondering, why is the bill not being extended?
02:13 Well, not everybody agreed with the concept in the first place.
02:16 In the midst of a cost of living crisis, the decree cost the Italian economy 674 million euros a year for the benefit of just 15,000 people.
02:27 And in a turbulent period for Italian politics, where they have had three prime ministers since 2019,
02:32 the current government have decided that the cost is no longer worth the benefit.
02:37 I think there's some easy answers as to why any government might not want to stand behind this growth decree law.
02:45 When you break it down to its most simple facts, you're talking about 15,000 people in the country benefiting from this law in terms of tax breaks.
02:53 And if you were paying full tax for all of those people, you could say it's costing the Italian government upwards of 600 million euros in revenue.
03:01 Now, of course, it's not that simple, because if it wasn't for the law, some of those people wouldn't be in the country to begin with.
03:05 So you can't quite do that maths.
03:07 And I also think that the counterpoint put by people who support the decree would make a further argument beyond that,
03:13 which is the whole reason for introducing the decree, it's why it's called the growth decree, was to help the economy to grow.
03:18 And if you want to bring it back to football, you can find some specific examples to talk about the fact that Milan, as a football club,
03:24 have increased their number of employees, the people they're employing, by more than 50 percent in the four years since it was brought into law.
03:30 Now, with all of these things that I say, you can oversimplify. Milan didn't just do it because of the growth decree.
03:35 Milan are a club under relative new ownership, who've been taking their own directions in lots of things.
03:40 But certainly the people who support the growth decree would say, look, yes, we're letting these people have tax breaks,
03:44 but it's helping the economy to grow. It's helping the football to grow.
03:47 But if you want to take the opposite side, we're in a cost of living crisis all across Europe.
03:51 Lots of Italians are struggling and lots of Italians might reasonably think, hey, why should that person be entitled to a tax break when I'm not?
03:57 Not only that, but some have suggested placing the emphasis on signing players outside of Italy has stunted the development in homegrown talent in academies.
04:06 Gli Azzori won the European Championships in 2021, but failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
04:14 As people look for reasons why this happened, the conversation turned to the decree and the impact it was having on academy products.
04:21 I think that the fact that the decree of Rescida is not valid anymore, well, it's not alive anymore, means some chances for young footballers to come out easily.
04:33 Let's face what a medium club of Serie A can do. Let's look at Monza. Monza has money, but not so much.
04:41 And we can look at their team. There are many Italian players. This is Monza, but we can speak about Sassuolo and it's the same.
04:49 I think that is actually improving in making the Italian teams more Italian. Let's say this.
04:56 And on a long period, on a long time, I expect we have the national team improving.
05:03 Well, while there are certainly valid reasons to take the tax break away, what does it mean for the immediate future of Italian football on the pitch?
05:11 After a mini resurgence on the continental stage over the last few years, will the disappearance of the growth decree stunt the league's progress?
05:20 I think that as in all parts of football, the impact will be felt least by the richest.
05:26 The richest clubs will still be the ones that can find a way to make things happen.
05:30 And the clubs that have Champions League revenue will still be the ones with the greatest leeway to try and make deals.
05:35 There will be fewer headline signings from abroad. So you're going to see some of those transfers drop off.
05:41 Yes, it will be interesting to keep an eye on Italian football now that the decreto crescita has been taken away.
05:48 That's all we have time for this week. Do let us know your thoughts using the hashtag football now Italy.
05:53 And we'll see you next time. Bye for now.
05:55 Bye for now.
05:56 Bye.
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