Serie A chief executive Luigi De Siervo has sent a major warning to fans who illegally stream football, claiming the sport 'is being killed' by the issue.
Illegal streaming has become a major problem across all of the top five European leagues, with the rise of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) technology helping to contribute to an upsurge in the problem.
Last year, a YouGov poll found that one in ten Britons are now using illegal broadcasts to watch sport including the Premier League, while it is also common in Italy.
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TorrentFreak report that Serie A bosses believe the only option they have to tackle the problem is to take legal action against those involved, with help from the Italian government and its prosecutors.
In a recent interview with Italian outlet Il Mattino [via TorrentFreak], De Siervo demonstrated his passion for ending the problem for good.
"Football is being killed, however, at the end of this battle, we will win. Because it's either them or us," he said.
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The Italian revealed that it isn't just those providing the service that are under threat of legal action, with new technology allowing the possibility of tracing the fan watching.
TorrentFreak add that 5,018 IP addresses and 16,523 domain names have already been blocked as part of the latest crackdown in Italy, although this has so far failed to tackle the issue of illegal streaming.
"There is a thread of Ariadne that connects the hacker [IPTV service] with the client’s terminal: now we have to trace the end user and sanction him. The rules are there," De Siervo said.
"A true fan does not watch a pirated match, because then he causes damage to his club. But it is a cultural issue, not linked to the price of season tickets."
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"Modern football is maintained by selling matches. We are also attacking search engines that in some ways are complicit," De Siervo continued.
While some fans believe this to be a non issue, De Siervo highlighted the huge amount of revenue that gets lost due to illegal streaming - claiming it could eventually be the end of football.
"There are, I repeat, 300 million euros of lost revenue, or 30 percent of the value of TV rights [lost to piracy]. Football is being killed like this because there are no longer the patrons of the past who lose money, what comes in is spent," De Siervo added.
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“We have the football we deserve and this parasitic system that doesn’t pay to watch matches must be blown up. Otherwise, football will blow up. It’s either them or us."
Topics: Serie A
Tom Jenkins