Napoli president says Italian football needs a "revolution"

MILAN, April 11 (Reuters) - Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has joined Juventus coach Antonio Conte in calling for drastic changes in the way Italian football is organised, saying it needs a "revolution."

"We need a revolution in Italian football," the film producer turned club president said on Twitter. "We need to turn over the table and adopt rules which are suitable for 2013, not 1900."

De Laurentiis was possibly referring to the difficulties Italian clubs face in building their own stadiums, including red tape and lack of financial incentives.
Juventus are the only Serie A club to own their own stadium while the rest play in often dilapidated municipally-owned arenas.

It is a vicious circle as clubs cannot afford to build or buy stadiums in the current situation, yet cannot improve their finances without their own grounds.
Conte said on Wednesday that Italian club football could no longer be considered among Europe's elite after Juventus were outclassed by Bayern Munich in their Champions League quarter-final, losing 4-0 on aggregate.

He said it would be years before an Italian team would win the Champions League again as they struggled to keep up financially with what he described as "super powers" from other countries.

He added that Italian football was more interested in "futile controversies" than discussing real issues. (Writing by Brian Homewood in Basel; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)