Juventus has called for the "immediate suspension of the contracts with three research institutes that were agreed in an illegitimate manner" by 15 small and medium-sized Serie A clubs. According to TV Sports Markets, the deals have been struck against the wishes of the league's top five clubs - Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Napoli and AS Roma.
The income must be shared according to the size of each club's supporter base and the complaint of the Turin club is that the criteria used by the league in commissioning research from the three companies - Sport+Markt, Doxa and Crespi - is at odds with the definition of "supporter" in the 2008 Melandri law on collective selling. The big clubs say that only one club per supporter should be taken into account, but the smaller clubs have insisted that second preferences should also be considered.
Using the wider definition increases the share of the money which would go to the smaller clubs. Under the proposed criteria, the total media rights income for Juventus would fall to Eur75.1 million for the 2010-11 season from Eur88 million in 2009-10, when the rights were sold individually by each club. The position of Juventus has been strengthened by the opinion expressed by the government's legislative office that the law intended only one club per fan to be included.
However, some of the smaller clubs point out that the opinion is not entirely a neutral one as the government is led by Silvio Berlusconi, owner of AC Milan. For all the latest TV sports rights news visit www.tvsportsmarkets.com/news.
