De Laurentiis addresses Conte, Kvaratskhelia and radical rule changes
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has given a wide-ranging interview in which he discussed the future of Antonio Conte, the club's star winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and proposed radical changes to the laws of football.
In an interview with The New York Times, the Napoli owner was asked about the future of head coach Antonio Conte, who has been heavily linked with the vacant managerial position of the Italian national team. De Laurentiis expressed confidence that Conte would not leave the club. "Antonio Conte is a very serious man," De Laurentiis told the publication. "He has a contract with me, he would never leave me at the last minute because he would create a huge problem for Napoli. If he were to leave, he would kill his own creation. Or he would have to decide immediately and say 'I want to go'. Then I would have time in April and May to find someone else to make the change. Otherwise, I don't think Mr. Conte will ever leave Napoli."
De Laurentiis also addressed the future of winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, whose father recently stated the player wanted to leave Napoli. The president revealed that the club had received a massive offer for the Georgian star. "When we started with Conte, we received an offer of 200 million euros from PSG and others for Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia together," De Laurentiis said, according to the interview. "Conte said: 'You can sell Osimhen, but please don't sell Kvaratskhelia.' But it was a big mistake because then I had problems with his father and his agent."
The Napoli president did not hold back in his criticism of the role of agents in the modern game. "In football, the agent is just a vampire who sucks money everywhere," De Laurentiis stated. He also lamented the lack of loyalty in the modern game, citing former captain Marek Hamsik as a rare exception.
Beyond club matters, De Laurentiis, who has long been a proponent of a European Super League, proposed a radical overhaul of the sport's rules to make it more appealing to a modern audience. He suggested reducing match duration from 90 to 50 minutes, split into two 25-minute halves. "First point: I would reduce the duration of each half from 45 minutes to 25 minutes," he said. "And then, no more time-wasting. You can't stay on the ground, acting. And there are too few goals, so there's no spectacle. We need more goals. And to score more, we need to change the rules."
He also proposed significant changes to the offside rule and a radical overhaul of the disciplinary system. "Offside must be changed, and by a lot!" he said. He also suggested that a yellow card should result in a five-minute suspension from the pitch, while a red card would lead to a 20-minute suspension, rather than a permanent dismissal. "For a yellow card, you are out for five minutes, if you get sent off you are out for 20 minutes," De Laurentiis explained.
The Napoli president also commented on the speculation linking Conte to the Italy job, suggesting the current FIGC (Italian Football Federation) leadership vacuum makes a move unlikely in the short term. "We don't have, at the moment, a president of the federation," he said. "So no one can decide to ask him. So first we have to solve the federation problem. Otherwise, we have to wait for the new federal elections in mid-June."
