Illegal streaming is costing Italy’s top football league hundreds of millions annually, according to the Serie A CEO.
Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo told Reuters that the league lost $345.3m in revenue last year due to illegal streaming. He warned an increase in online piracy is damaging the value of Italian football’s media rights and threatening the league’s future.
“Many question why our national team is in this situation and why there is a lack of talent,” he said. “One reason being the losses due to piracy.”
De Siervo linked falling media revenues with underinvestment in youth academies, ageing infrastructure, and a system ill-equipped to develop elite players. Italy, four-time world champions, have failed to qualify for the last two World Cups and are already under pressure after losing their opening qualifier for the 2026 tournament.
“All the money that is lost every year is not invested in the youth teams and in the growth of our young players,” he said. “A major issue that has led our national team to face many difficulties.”
Not just an Italian problem
While De Siervo’s remarks focus on Italy, the problem extends across Europe.
Earlier this year, Sky’s Chief Operating Officer, Nick Herm, called for tougher action, accusing telcos and major tech companies of failing to tackle the problem effectively.
“There are football fans who literally have shirts printed with ‘dodgy boxes and fire sticks’ on them,” Herm said at the FT Business of Football Summit, highlighting Amazon’s Fire Stick devices as a common tool for accessing pirated matches.
Similar frustration has come from LaLiga President Javier Tebas, who compared sports piracy to drug trafficking and accused tech firms like Amazon Web Services, Cloudflare and Google of acting as “necessary cooperators” in the spread of illegal content.
These complaints have fallen on the deaf ears of supporters, who have witnessed prices significantly rise over recent years. Cost isn’t the only reason fans are turning to illegal streams, with 3pm Premier League matches not available in the UK due to the blackout rule, a rule enforced to ensure clubs still maintain large attendances at stadiums.
However, illegal pirating is starting to have an impact on broadcast deals. In France, Ligue 1 rights holder DAZN entered a months-long legal dispute with the LFP over missed payments, citing insufficient anti-piracy cooperation from the league as a key factor.
While the conflict has since been resolved, it led to the LFP confirming DAZN would no longer be a domestic broadcaster from 2025.
For De Siervo, the stakes are clear. Without a significant reduction in piracy, Serie A risks falling behind its European rivals. “We are already far behind the Premier League and LaLiga,” he said. “If we continue like this… we will end up at the bottom of the table together with the French.”
