Do we really want to export Series A abroad?

The future of exporting Italian football abroad, according to Luigi De Siervo, is to imitate the NBA and NFL models. He made this statement during a recent press briefing, where he summed up the Supercoppa missions abroad. The exportation of this trophy has become less of a news item: in 2025, we saw the seventh edition in the Persian Gulf, the fifth in Saudi Arabia (starting in Jeddah in 2018 before moving to Riyadh, the capital), after two editions in Doha, Qatar (2014, 2016). Earlier editions were held even farther afield — four in China (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015) and a couple in the United States (1993, 2003) — with one in 2002 in Tripoli, Libya.

Speaking about the future of the Supercoppa, the Serie A CEO hinted that the recent Saudi Final Fours, in addition to staying (both in terms of format and location), could soon be joined by other similar events in the region. But what kind of matches could these be? With an unfortunate choice of words, De Siervo explained that “out of respect for the fans, it won’t be the best match”. Presumably, therefore, the choice might fall on a mid-table match between lower or mid-tier teams. The timeline suggested to “see an Italian match abroad” is quite broad: “within the next three years”. However, it didn’t take long for De Siervo’s words to spark controversy on social media.

The contradictions emerging from his speech are all too evident. First of all, promoting any product by saying that it certainly won’t be a match between top clubs brings us face-to-face once again with the clumsiness with which the Lega Serie A publicly handles the controversial issue of games abroad. For example, you would never see American leagues, like the NBA or NFL, selling off one of their own events in this way. And then, there’s the respect for the fans: an unfortunate phrase that certainly did not help the popularity of the project.

Beyond the communication blunder, there are several reasons to be skeptical about this whole approach. It’s not about blindly protecting every minute of football in Italian stadiums in the name of revenue and marketing. The point concerns the foundations of the project, both from a sporting and business model perspective; understanding the contexts and target markets, choosing the models to emulate, and, lastly, the ability to engage the audience.

Where and How

“NBA and NFL have been playing in Europe and all over the world forever, and they do it successfully, and it pays off,” explains Luigi De Siervo. “I don’t understand why it becomes a scandal when Serie A does it.” First of all, to answer, it’s important to clear up any doubts about the geographic location. Excluding any other contexts (for sporting and economic reasons), it’s inevitable that the focus lands on the usual Persian Gulf countries: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar. “Where has the world opened up?” De Siervo confirms, “in the Middle East. We’re not doing politics, we’re trying to attract new fans. There are 400 million people in love with football there, and they’re young.” We’re all too familiar with the political and social implications of this.

In Saudi Arabia, in any case, the Supercoppa is already being played. It has been expanded to four teams and three matches, placed in the middle of the season (and Christmas holidays), and has been met with mixed reactions from the Riyadh crowd. While the direct clashes between the three most popular clubs in the region — Milan, Inter, and Juventus — have generated interest, the same cannot be said for matches involving Atalanta, Napoli, Lazio, and Fiorentina. This highlights the particularities of the local market, which is clearly different from the European one: whether we like it or not, this is a factor that must be taken into account. This is especially true given the assumption behind bringing a Serie A match abroad — namely, that it won’t be a big match. If the Napoli-Fiorentina semi-final from a year ago was snubbed (fewer than 10,000 spectators), who would be interested in — and thus benefit from — any league match without top teams and with only three points on the line?

Definitely not Italian fans. It’s quite clear that the Supercoppa operation is much more profitable for the Lega and clubs than it is for the image of Italian football. It’s also clear that — not just for cost reasons — it is possible to export a product, but not the context. Even with high-profile teams and rivalries. “We tried to bring a thousand Italian fans to Saudi Arabia for each game,” says De Siervo, “a lot was done, building commercial packages with Visit Saudi and keeping costs low. There were two offers: one could be called from the curva (standing section) and the other from the stands. They had affordable prices, considering the overall effort — but didn’t get as much attention as we hoped. We even thought about bringing in a plane for organized fan clubs: we wanted there to be chants, like in Italy.”

He continued: “It was complicated even with what’s going on with the fans of Inter and Milan, and at that point, it wasn’t worth bringing the fans of the other two teams. The packages were interesting, especially Juventus pushed the initiative, but we didn’t get the response we were hoping for. Organized fan support is one of the areas I’m focusing on for next year. It’s costly, with charters and accommodation, it’s an expensive matter. But it’s an improvement we need to study.”

Models and Competitors

The reference to the NBA and NFL comes just days before the annual American basketball trip to Europe. A comparison between the upcoming event in Paris (which eagerly awaits the arrival of Wembanyama) and the Italian Supercoppa, and even more so a comparison between the two sporting contexts, provides an opportunity to reflect on De Siervo’s words. And therefore, on the impossibility of Italian football emulating a model that is fundamentally and structurally different.

NBA and NFL represent the pinnacle of their respective sports, with a concentration of talent that is unparalleled worldwide. American leagues foster and exercise, by their very nature and through decades of work, an exclusivity and atmosphere that is simply non-replicable. To put it very simply, the worst game the NBA can export has a greater appeal — at least for the talent on display — than mid or low-tier Italian football games, and not just them. Even the Premier League, now dominant in Europe, doesn’t offer a comparable situation.

Serie A’s reference point should lie within comparable sporting and social contexts, ideally closer to home. That is, besides the UEFA competitions and the Premier League, the counterparts of other major historical markets: La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1. And it’s an arena where Italian football has long since lost the privileged position it once held, for example, in the 1990s. The team that generates the least revenue from TV rights in England, for instance, earns far more than the top Serie A clubs; who have inevitably seen their purchasing power reduced in recent decades, alongside a decline in stadium attendance, which is much lower than the numbers in England and Germany.

Moreover, the global football market has expanded more than ever in recent years (U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey), diluting some of Europe’s exclusivity and making competition for fan loyalty in emerging markets fiercer. Are we really sure that imitating the NBA and NFL, exporting Serie A matches but not the best ones, is the right direction?