Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Sky warns Lega Serie A in letter over Parma crisis, wants fixtures completed

Sky television has written to the Lega Serie A demanding that everything be done to ensure that Parma's game with Atalanta, and all of their remaining fixtures this season, go ahead as scheduled.

Parma's last two matches -- against Udinese and Genoa -- have been called off with the club's future shrouded in doubt due to financial problems. According to Sky, Serie A is becoming a farce and the Lega Serie A must intervene to restore order.

"We cannot fail to express our serious and growing concerns at what is happening at Parma and, as a consequence, to the entire league," read a letter signed by Sky Sport Italia's executive vice president Jacques Raynaud. "It has lost its regularity and risks being permanently deprived of one of its key members and a prestigious club.

"We are particularly shocked about how the situation could get to this point without you doing anything to prevent it. We are therefore asking you, in our position as principle partners of Italian football, at least to explain what you intend to do to deal efficiently with this situation and to guarantee that at least all of the fixtures which are due to be played will be played."

Sky currently pays 650 million euros per annum for television rights. That sum may be only around a quarter of the 1.712 billion pounds p/a (approximately 2.35 billion euros) that will be paid for British television rights to the Premier League from 2016 to 2019, yet it is still a considerable sum which should prevent situations like the one at Parma.

The latest slice of the television revenue has just been paid by Sky, who want to see it used wisely to ensure Parma can get to the end of the season.

"We expect that this economic support from us, which has just been paid, will be used by you for this," continued the letter from Sky. "We also hope that, with the support of the government and the institutions, rules are established which provide better guarantees in future.

"We feel that, once again in this case, we have shown our support for Italian football and we would like to express our solidarity with the Parma team and their coaching staff and employees, who are the first to suffer from this situation, as well as our maximum respect for the Parma fans, many of whom are also subscribers to our services, but more in general to all lovers of football who, if you permit us to say, would deserve a better football."

It was revealed this week that theĀ overall debt of clubs in Serie A last season has risen to over 1.7 billion euros, with an investigation by La Gazzetta dello Sport saying that Parma are not the only Italian club struggling to make ends meet.

Inter Milan and Roma, two giants of the Italian game, have some of the biggest debts, which is why they are also subject to UEFA financial fair play investigations which could lead to restrictions placed on them in Europe next season.

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