Italian Football Federation (FIGC) President Franco Carraro has called on Serie A clubs to reduce ticket prices in a bid to reverse a decline in attendances.
The average number of spectators turning out to watch a Serie A match this season is 21,280, a fall of nearly 20 percent on last year’s 26,135.
Carraro’s appeal followed a disappointing turnout for Juventus’s clash against title rivals Inter Milan on Sunday, which drew just 33,772 fans to Turin’s Stadio delle Alpi, less than half the capacity of 68,000.
“Pricing policy should give people an incentive to go to the stadium,” Carraro was quoted as saying in La Gazzetta dello Sport on Wednesday.
“Not all matches are equal. For a big game people would be willing to pay a higher price.
“There are, however, matches like Juventus versus Siena, or Juventus versus Chievo, and in those cases the prices are not being dropped.”
Adriano Galliani, the president of Italy’s Football League believes the poor condition of Italy’s stadia is encouraging people to watch matches on television rather than attend matches.
“If there are fewer people attending matches it is surely because it has become more convenient to watch the games on TV than in obsolete stadiums,” he said.
“In my opinion, football should be played in stadiums built specifically to watch football in, where there is no athletics track to keep the spectators far away from the pitch.”
