Italy’s Lega Pro Calls for Betting Levy to Fund Youth Football

Matteo Marani, president of Italy’s Lega Pro, urged the Chamber of Deputies’ VII Committee on Culture, Science and Education to redirect a share of betting revenue toward youth football academies as part of a broader plan to reverse Italian football’s structural decline. The proposal, made during an informal parliamentary hearing on the crisis in Italian football, targeted the betting sector as a funding source that has so far contributed nothing directly to grassroots development. Italy has failed to qualify for the last three FIFA World Cups.

Marani anchored his case in Serie C data: the league records over 252,000 minutes played by Italian Under-21 players, and Italians make up more than 87% of all players. “A portion of the revenue from betting should be directed specifically to finance youth academies,” he said, and framed Serie C as the primary development laboratory for the Italian national team. Marani proposed no specific levy percentage or target revenue figure at the hearing.

The betting levy was one of several measures he put forward. He also called for tax credits for clubs that field young Italian players, stricter controls on club registration and ownership transfers, and state investment in modern sports infrastructure.

One proposal carries particular weight for the gambling sector: a revision of Italy’s “Dignity Decree,” the 2018 legislation that banned all forms of gambling advertisement across Italian media. Marani argued that a relaxation of those restrictions would increase commercial revenue for clubs. The change would simultaneously reopen one of Europe’s largest football markets to operator and affiliate sponsorships that Italy has not seen for seven years.

TGJ Take

A betting levy would add a new cost line for Italian-focused operators, but with no percentage on the table, the financial exposure is impossible to model at this stage. The Dignity Decree revision is the more immediate signal to watch. That 2018 law cut Italian clubs off from gambling partnerships, and a reversal would reopen a tier-one European market to operator and affiliate sponsorships that Italy has not seen for seven years. Marani has presented the betting sector with a direct trade: fund youth football, and the advertisement door opens.