Yet another ugly chapter in Serie A coming up Nov. 23, 2003. The five clubs who signed a Tv rights agreement with Gioco Calcio, Brescia, Ancona, Perugia, Empoli, and Chievo will not play on that Sunday unless they receive their checks. Seems that to date they have received nothing, nil, zero, and as a result, cannot afford to pay their blls or their players. Seems as thogh they were forced by the league to sign with Gioco Calcio, while the fat cats (Juve, MIlan, Inter, Roma, Lazio) signed lucrative deals with Stream and Sky over the summer. Is this another example of the rich getting richer??
Gioco Calcio is a society that was created by the five teams above because they wanted more money . Now, since they don't get any money from their society, they want to stop the championship. That's not the rich getting richer, that's more like the fool getting fooler, forcing all the league to pay for their inability to manage their teams.
I guess the issue is whether the league promised to provide funds if Gioco Calcio struggled (which it is)...."crisis meeting" was set for today... http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/nov19d.html
Clubs call off strike threat http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/nov20g.html They really couldn't afford to strike. If the league started docking points, they'd all be risking relegation.