Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose family holding company Fininvest owns Serie A Milan, has blocked a law aimed at reforming the way TV revenue is distributed among clubs.
Fourteen Serie A clubs, led by Fiorentina owner Diego Della Valle, want a return to collective bargaining in the hope that the money will be more evenly spread among all teams.
At the moment, individual clubs can negotiate their own TV deals, leading to clubs like Milan and Juventus receiving up to 10 times more than some of their Serie A rivals.
But on Wednesday Forza Italia spokesman Elio Vito told the Italian Parliament that they were not willing to debate the issue, claiming there was insuffient time to reach agreement before elections on April 9.
The decision was attacked by politicians and club owners.
“Democracy doesn’t exist in Italy,” said Palermo president Maurizio Zamparini.
“All there is is a group of powerful clubs that try to get their hands on something that will suit them and help them win for the next few years,” he said in an interview on TV news channel RaiNews24 on Thursday.
“Other countries have already dealt with this problem and resolved it by selling rights collectively.
“In Italy, on the other hand, we are constantly reinforcing the power of the big clubs at the expense of the smaller ones.”
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