Italian men's soccer's top-tier Serie A has hired an inaugural head of international business development.
Giovanni Petronio joins the 20-team league as part of its overall efforts to grow and increase its worldwide appeal.
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He was previously the head of partnership and client engagement at the Cortina Foundation, a body which organizes and assists sporting events in that part of Northern Italy (including the Winter Olympics and Paralympics earlier this year).
In his career, he has also worked at heavyweights brands such as Nike and Amazon.
He has now stated, via LinkedIn, that his main focus "will be on acclerating Serie A's international growth, translating strategic priorities into market-specific plans and strengthening the league's presence globally.
"I look forward to working with clubs and partners on this next chapter for Serie A."
He will work partly in the team of Anna Guarnerio, who has headed up the league's international broadcast rights team for the last four years, while also having taking on responsibility for deals with overseas brands.
Serie A now has an increasing focus on international development, of which this appointment is the latest indicator.
Over August and early September, the league unveiled a significant number of overseas media rights tie-ups, including a multi-year agreement in the US with Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo.
Early September also saw reports that the league has been reviving plans to sell a stake in its overseas rights business to private equity.
News outlet Reuters said at the time that Carlyle and Bain were among the funds looking to bid, while Oaktree, owner of Serie A’s reigning champions Inter Milan, and Italian private equity firm Nextalia, were also expected to submit offers.
Serie A has a target of tripling its overseas media rights revenues from the last cycle (2021-24) by 2030. Across those three seasons, the league's total overseas media rights fees reportedly came to €657 million – for the Premier League, meanwhile, overseas rights for the 2022-25 cycle came to £5.3 billion (currently, the equivalent of €6.2 billion.
The league, along with the equivalent soccer competitions in France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, lags behind England's Premier League significantly in terms of international appeal (and subsequently, worldwide revenue).
