The Japan Times WORLD EYE REPORTS ROME AND THE MEZZOGIORNO
©THE JAPAN TIMES	Tuesday, September 4, 2001

Boardroom strategies for the "beautiful game"

In Italy, it is said that there are two religions -- Roman Catholicism and football. Although thousands of pilgrims flock to see the Pope at the Vatican every week, football games gather more faithful fans. And where there are fans and viewers, there is business to be made. A successful game plan has taken advantage of this crowd-pulling power to push one of Italian football's main players -- Lazio -- to match the club's sporting prowess with a trip to the top of the profit standings.

Rome-based SS Lazio, which with fellow first division club and sporting archrival AS Roma shares the Stadio Olimpico along the north banks of the Tiber as its home ground, occupies an important niche in Italian football. It has clinched numerous domestic and European titles since being established 101 years ago. The two-time Serie A champions - who also bagged the Italian Cup (1958, 1998, 2000), Cup Winners' Cup (1999), and UEFA Super Cup (1999) - again made their mark in the field when they recently emerged as one of the country's and Europe's richest clubs thanks to a huge investment from the club's controlling shareholder Sergio Cragnotti.

S.S. Lazio Managing Director Elisabetta Cragnotti balances a hard-headed business sense with being her team's number-one tifosa.

In its quest to be among the world's high-profile clubs, SS Lazio tapped capital outside the boardroom and was listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in 1988, the very first Italian football club to do so. The move was greeted with much scepticism at first but it proved a success as the team secured star players and grabbed the Cup Winners' Cup in 1999.

"As it was the first time the bourse authorities had dealt with a soccer club, we were given stronger controls than other companies. Our listing, however, was a major success and the demand for shares was heavily oversubscribed," remarks Sergio's daughter Elisabetta Cragnotti, who is the club's managing director.

Elisabetta Cragnotti has been tasked with exploring new avenues for the company, the most promising of which is the marketing of media and TV rights. "This is a competitive market and we have to stay economically viable for our investors," she explains. "In 2002, we regain our international TV rights, which means we can re-negotiate the contracts."

"Our website - www.sslazio.it - is also our main tool to communicate internationally with our tifosi (fans) regarding developments in the club, and to highlight the merchandise that is available," adds Elisabetta Cragnotti. "With the website, fans can not only buy our products online, but we can also tell them where the official stores for our merchandise are located."

In April, Lazio and AS Roma unveiled an ambitious joint deal to buy the Olympic Stadium. If this deal comes through, it will mean turning the site into a modern sports complex, which would also feature restaurants, stores and movie theaters.

Asked if she considers herself a tifosi or a businesswoman, Elisabetta Cragnotti replies: "Sport is a business now, like any other sector. The business benefits from the football when your team is doing well; and you have stronger bargaining chips if you run the company productively. I love watching the team play and win but I equally enjoy the new developments in the company for shareholder value. It?s a fascinating business."

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