Napoli Owner De Laurentiis Calls for 50-Minute Matches and Major Football Reforms
"Football is going to lose the younger generation." Those are the words of Aurelio De Laurentiis, the 76-year-old owner of Napoli, speaking from his Beverly Hills home on Easter Sunday — and he's not just complaining. He's got a detailed plan.
The Italian film producer and Serie A's most vocal chairman is proposing a radical overhaul: cut matches down to 50 minutes, eliminate yellow and red cards completely, relax offside regulations, and kick smaller clubs out of the top division. Love it or hate it, there's a certain logic woven through most of his proposals.
The case for 50-minute matches — and why he might have a point
De Laurentiis envisions replacing the traditional 45-minute halves with two 25-minute periods of actual playing time — no stoppage time, no lengthy VAR reviews, no time-wasting antics. "You can't just lie on the pitch and put on a performance like you're in a movie," he insists. Fake an injury? You're coming off.
His proposal replaces cards with a sin-bin system. Minor infraction? You're out for five minutes. Serious foul? Twenty minutes on the bench. His reasoning is that suspensions affecting future matches penalize teams more than the actual offence — a player can deliberately foul to break up a counterattack knowing the real price won't be paid until next week. Immediate in-game penalties would alter that calculation right away.
Regarding offside, he wants to eliminate the microscopic calls. That's tough to dispute. Nobody except the defending team has ever celebrated having a goal disallowed because of a toenail offside.
Whether FIFA or UEFA would even consider these changes is questionable. But the core issue he's identifying — that modern football is sluggish, fragmented, and increasingly incompatible with shorter attention spans — is legitimate. Broadcasters are already noticing younger audiences tuning out.
The Super League concept, smaller clubs, and Antonio Conte's future
De Laurentiis advocates shrinking Serie A from 20 teams to 16, removing any club that can't demonstrate at least one million supporters. "When these teams appear on DAZN or Sky, how many viewers tune in? 3,000? Maybe 4,000?" His vision for the league features Juventus, Inter, Milan, Napoli and Roma as guaranteed members — with everyone else competing for the remaining positions.
It's a harsh perspective on the game. Teams like Sassuolo, built from a town of just 40,000 residents, earned their promotion through the same merit-based system that allowed Napoli to climb back from Serie C. De Laurentiis dismisses that comparison. "Napoli has 100 million supporters worldwide — it's completely different."
Regarding a European Super League, he's more sophisticated than the failed 2021 breakaway attempt — he rejected that model because it guaranteed spots to specific clubs rather than selecting teams based on league performance. He prefers a comprehensive pan-European tournament: approximately 20-25 clubs from Europe's top five leagues competing against each other throughout a season. The specifics remain unclear, but his goal is fewer inconsequential group matches and more fixtures that genuinely matter commercially.
On Gianni Infantino's expanded Club World Cup, he's blunt: "You're destroying my investment. I put money into these players and you're burning them out just to line your own pockets."
Concerning Antonio Conte — who just secured Napoli's fourth Scudetto — De Laurentiis is confident about retention. He likens Conte's coaching approach to the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket, and he means it as high praise. "When you prioritize defence, you probably win. If you only focus on attacking, you probably lose."
- Conte has one season remaining on his current deal
- The Italian federation presidency remains vacant, complicating any potential national team overture
- De Laurentiis says he requires a decision by April or May to secure a replacement if Conte departs
Kvaratskhelia's January transfer to PSG — which Conte resisted — stripped Napoli of one of their top performers during their title campaign. De Laurentiis claims the player's representatives threatened to invoke FIFA's Article 17, which permits players under 28 to terminate contracts after three years for minimal compensation. He's campaigning to have that regulation modified. It won't be the final instance of a club getting burned by it.
"The agent is simply a parasite extracting money from all sides," he declares. That said, De Laurentiis offloaded Kvaratskhelia in January and still captured the championship. Difficult to question the results, regardless of the method.