De Laurentiis: “The Super League is silly like that. Florentino never called me”

After more than four months in press silence, Napoli speak again. President Aurelio De Laurentiis summoned the press in a hotel in Rome and spoke about the current situation of the team, announcing inevitable cuts with the current crisis and commenting on the Superliga project, an idea that was also his for more than a decade , although with another form.

Eurocup: “England punished the Super League clubs, now they allow him to play the final with up to 75,000 people … From the way I see it, Draghi should convince all other countries to postpone the start of the championships, looking for a date that is also suitable with the vaccination schedule. By the way, why is getting vaccinated still not mandatory? “

The tie with Verona, which cost the Champions League: “It was a great disappointment, I went to cheer on the boys at halftime, but after our goal the draw came. Reaching the end of such a complicated league is very difficult on a mental level, it has been a faked championship in the last year and a half. I'll sit with the players and talk to them about that night, but I don't know if the answers you want will come. “

Super League: “Florentino and I had breakfast together with Maradona, we know each other well, but for the Super League he never spoke to me. I was never in favor of the project they presented, because a competition with 12 teams by invitation did not serve to fix the problems of football at an economic level. Florentino, anyway, had a great merit and it is not having invented the nonsense of the Superliga, it is to have explained why he wanted to create it. Champions and Europa League, well, they do not serve for our balance sheets. We should create a championship with the five more countries important, France, Spain, England, Germany and Italy, playing Wednesday and Thursday. Every year, and here Florentino makes a mistake, the first six of the classification would access, because it is fair if Fiorentina or Verona get there, participate. Then, the other 25 countries play another league, whose winner would face the winner of the top five. You play 29 games and between sponsors, stadiums and platforms, you win 10,000 million, not all three of Florentino. How will the question with Juve, Real Madrid and Barça end? I hope there is common sense. “

Selections: “The World Cup in Qatar is the bullshit of the century. Infantino is very intelligent, but there were some interests that come from before, and now, with the covid, they no longer work. I always told the presidents: why should we give in our players to the national teams? If they break, they won't pay me the 100 million they were worth before they got injured. They even reproach me for denying Fabian the Olympics. But is this serious? If they want the Games, let the championships start in December, for example. And if not, we cut the leagues with 16 teams. “

Gattuso: “I have nothing to reproach him for, he went to work early in the morning and left at night. Mendes, his agent, is a friend, we had dinner together in Portugal and Rome, we had also talked about renovating, but there was no agreement. With Spalletti the objective is to return to the Champions League and settle the accounts, because it is no longer sustainable to pay 156 million salaries. It will be necessary to sell, but I do not believe that exorbitant offers will arrive. With the right proposals, nobody is untouchable ”.