The Governance of the Football Sector in Italy. A Conceptual Framework for Overcoming Some Pathologies

Abstract

The government of professional football sector is a complex issue, for the numerous threats to the proper conduct of sporting activities (such as the extended dimension of the interest on illegal betting), for the involvement of sports entities in social activities, and for the greater interest which assumes the economic dimension. Moreover, an effective governance model should prevent, rather than cure, the manifestation of problems within the professional clubs. In Italy, the current model of governance of football is formally openness, but it does not exert a preventive action fully effective of the problems that professional clubs must face. By proposing a conceptual framework, focused on the taxonomy of pathologies to which professional football clubs are exposed, the paper highlights some gaps for the identification of tools and procedures useful for the reorientation of clubs’ management towards the balanced satisfaction of sporting, economic, social and communicative dimensions.