It is Easter Sunday at the Beverly Hills residence of Aurelio De Laurentiis, the 76-year-old Italian movie mogul and owner of Serie A team Napoli.
“Soccer will lose the younger generation,” he declares. But De Laurentiis has ideas. Lots of them. And once he starts, there is no stopping him.
“The matches are too long,” he shrugs. He does not like the long breaks caused by video referees. He also cannot understand why 15 minutes is required for half-time.
“Imagine the stupidity!” he says. “You think my grandchild of six years old, who knows everything (about football) because he plays with the PlayStation… he will escape… and you think you will recoup him after 15 minutes? Never! Because he goes in his room. He starts to play FIFA.”
In the stadiums, he says, children are on board with “the atmosphere and the participation” but, he warns, “they do not have the patience to see a very slow-paced match on television.
“If you watch a match on TV, especially if it is a terrible match… what do they do?”
OK, Mr President. So how long should the game be?
“Number one: I will reduce from 45 minutes each (half) to 25 minutes,” he says. In his 50-minute game, the match will be tracked for in-play time, rather than match officials recovering minutes through stoppages at the end of each half.
“But also you cannot stay down on the field and play around like an actor!”
“AGHHHH!” he moans, feigning injury. “NO — you will go OUT! What I will do also — I will never use a red card and a yellow card.”
Instead, he likes a sin-bin concept. “I would say ‘YOU — get out for five minutes (for a yellow card)!’ And ‘YOU — get out for 20 minutes for a red card!’
His theory is to cause greater inconvenience for a player’s actions in the actual game they are playing, rather than future matches. He says players sometimes deliberately take cards to prevent attacks, without substantial punishment within the game itself.
“Another thing!” Uh-oh. “Too few goals! So it is not spectacular. You must make more goals. And to make more goals, you must change the rules.”
Which rules? “You cannot (cancel) a goal just for a few millimetres… The offside must be changed, a lot.”
“The new generation is our gold,” he insists. “If we don’t please them, we will die. You will not have the same participation as you had in the last 100 years.”
Time in the company of De Laurentiis is never dull. He is, by trade, a movie producer and filmmaker. He revels in his role as Italian football’s provocateur. There is mischief in the delivery; a glint in his eye here, a knowing smile there. He is fabulously indiscreet, prodding, poking and seeking to disrupt just about everyone in the game. Some of his ideas make you nod, some may make you laugh, some may make you scream.
But he is also a riddle. Unlike many of his peers, he shuns far-flung pre-season tours, believing they are not the best preparation for a hard season. Recently, his coach Antonio Conte questioned why Napoli must have fans present during pre-season training. De Laurentiis would not budge. “The supporters must be respected,” he said. “We work for them!” He is unimpressed by FIFA’s expensive ticket pricing for the World Cup.
Give De Laurentiis a topic, and he will give you an opinion. How to fix Major League Soccer? They should make a pan-Americas league, merging the continents of North and South America.
Serie A? They ought to cut the league from 20 to 16 teams, and while they are at it, if a team has less than one million fans, they probably shouldn’t be there at all.
As for agents? Well, they are a bunch of “vampires”, sucking money from the game, and don’t get him started on the representatives of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who left Napoli for Paris Saint-Germain midway through last season.
Will Conte leave for the Italian national team? “The team is (Conte’s) creation,” De Laurentiis says. “So he will kill his baby, abandoning him just at the last minute…?”
What about the future of the European game? De Laurentiis has an idea.
“Let’s take the most important teams from Italy, Spain, France, Germany and England… They must make a European…”
He pauses, for dramatic effect. Erm, Super League?
“No!” he grins. “A Superrrr… Championship!”
De Laurentiis openly acknowledges that he did not grow up as a football lover. Instead, his sport was basketball, but as he provides a walking tour of his residence, he is at his most nostalgic and happiest when talking about movies.
De Laurentiis’ father Luigi and uncle Dino were both successful movie makers. Dino won Academy Awards and his works included some of Federico Fellini’s movies, as well as Serpico and the 1976 remake of King Kong. Aurelio and Luigi founded the Filmauro studio in 1975. His latest work, and the reason The Athletic has been invited, is AG4IN, the documentary De Laurentiis made to mark Napoli’s fourth Serie A title — earned under Conte in the 2024-25 season.
Aurelio De Laurentiis and his Napoli players lifting the Serie A trophy (Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)
It had a run in Italian cinemas and premiered at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood last Monday. During the event, attended by dozens of Napoli fans who bounced and celebrated with their owner after Napoli beat Milan earlier in the evening, De Laurentiis received honorary citizenship of Los Angeles from L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.
“Between my family, we did more than 2,000 movies,” De Laurentiis smiles. His home, nestled in one of the world’s most exclusive postcodes, is one of breathtaking beauty. The outdoor pool looks out to the pristine Hollywood Hills.
He stops by his corridor of photographs, a Who’s Who of Hollywood icons.
“Alain Delon, a famous French actor with his Ferrari in the ’50s,” he grins. “Here is Sophia Loren! David Niven, probably in the Cote d’Azur! And here is Kirk Douglas, with my uncle Dino.”
He has a childlike gusto for movies. From the ceiling, a model shark hangs down, a gift from his wife Jacqueline. “I love sharks,” he says.
Aged 18, he suggested to his father that he go to Polynesia and make a movie about sharks. “You will need to eat more spaghetti before you direct a movie,” his father told him. A few years after, Peter Benchley released a book — Jaws (1974). The young De Laurentiis phoned to ask about the movie rights, only to be told they had gone to a bright young director: Steven Spielberg.
He speaks in awe of Fellini, Stanley Kubrick and the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. He often invites the Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore, who shot Cinema Paradiso, to his screening room, and they watch old Charlie Chaplin movies together. “We even invite somebody to play piano while we watch… Sensational.”
Aurelia’s uncle Dino (far left) on stage with Warren Beatty (second left), George Lucas (third right), Steven Spielberg (second right) and Tom Hanks (far right) (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
It all sounds very idyllic, a world away from the strains and stresses of football club ownership, particularly in Naples, where the fire and fury from the Curva B ultras can be as hot as the lava from nearby Mount Vesuvius.
In 2004, he pivoted to what he now describes as “the best movie” he made in his life. Napoli, the club once made famous by Diego Maradona, was being wound up and languishing in the third division. He was on vacation in Capri, taking a break from filming with Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, when he read about Napoli being up for auction in a newspaper.
His wife and son warned him he knew nothing about the sport, but that did not stop him spending €32million (£21m; $39m) to acquire the club. Napoli returned to Serie A by 2007, played Champions League football for the first time in 2011, and became a fixture in European competition. They returned to the summit in 2023, winning Serie A for the first time in 33 years, before doing it all over again last season.
“I applied my strong discipline from the movie business. There, you cannot joke. Otherwise, you are a loser. I was really a winner. So I said, ‘OK, could it be more difficult than the movie business?’ I don’t think so.”
De Laurentiis loves a battle. Mention a football person, league, or organisation, and the answer usually begins: “Ahhh, they make BIG mistake.”
Italian football is having a moment of introspection, after the national team’s failure to qualify for a third World Cup in succession. How does that make him feel as an Italian?
“Italy is one of the most beautiful countries in the world,” he says. “It does not live with soccer. It can live with tourism, with fashion, with food, with the good life. But if we don’t go three times, there is a certain responsibility of those on the top.”
He suggests that analysis of football matches should be worked into the Italian education system, framed in engaging ways according to age groups, to help create smarter fans and coaches across the country.
Within Serie A, De Laurentiis has long called for a reduction in the size of the league, down to 16 teams. He believes there is too much football and it diminishes the quality of the product, for broadcasters and fans, but also for players, who can play 60-70 games per season.
“Then Mr Infantino (FIFA president Gianni) has invented the World Cup for clubs,” he grumbles. He says players are being “killed” and “squeezed” by competition organisers.
“You will also kill MY MONEY,” he points out, most importantly of all to him. “Because I invested in that guy and you are squeezing him just to put money in your pocket? No! But then the money we get back (from the competitions)? It is not enough. Imagine all the growth of UEFA, all that money. Why must it be managed by UEFA and not by the clubs?
“The problem is, too many people want to be protagonists. UEFA, FIFA, local federations. Big troubles, big problems.
“You may ask: ‘Why?’
“Because they want to make money for themselves. UEFA changed the group stage for the Champions League two years ago. It added more matches. But if you see (the ratings) on TV, the success is not equal because there are certain matches that nobody cares about. That is happening also in the local championship because we have too many teams.”
Part of the problem, he says, is big federations rely on a one-member-one-vote system, which incentivises football’s leadership to constantly grow competitions to return opportunity to the broadest electorate possible.
“They must make everybody play, because they need the vote. So if Mr Ceferin (UEFA president Aleksander) wants to be reelected, he must please everybody. So San Marino has the same vote as Italy or as England! For you, is that normal? I don’t think so!”
De Laurentiis and The Athletic’s Adam Crafton (The Athletic)
He has solutions. First, he says, the league should admit only those owners who provide “good financing”, rather than those who pile debt on clubs. He has little time for private equity owners, sometimes faceless and voiceless, who enter European football teams and sometimes leave fans without a direct reference point.
“And number two… You cannot have a little town (team) with 50,000 inhabitants.”
Pardon? “Because when the team go on DAZN or on SKY, how many people will watch? 3,000? 4,000? And the advertising? Why must Sky or DAZN pay a lot of money for this kind of match?”
He says the league becomes de facto divided, between a few teams — “Juventus, Inter, AC Milan, Napoli and Roma” — who will always compete for trophies or European places, and then 10 teams who fight to avoid relegation.
“So you must have… at least one million supporters!” he declares. “If you have 100,000 or 200,000, you must be in another… section.”
But haven’t those clubs, such as Sassuolo (from a town of 40,000 residents), not earned their place via promotion, just like Napoli did, while also providing pride to their community and town?
He waves his hand dismissively. “But Napoli has 100million supporters — it is different.” That is not an easy number to verify, but Napoli claimed 70million fans worldwide watched its title parade in 2025, with 200million views of content via its social media platforms.
De Laurentiis believes the biggest teams competing against one another would draw a bigger audience. He makes the argument more political.
“It’s all a big, huge mistake. Instead of inventing the United States of Europe, Europe existed without existing. There was too much egoism politically for each country to be all together with a unique economy, language and president. The same is true for soccer — because soccer must be regenerated.”
Aurelio De Laurentiis with Barcelona president Joan Laporta (Eric Alonso/Getty Images)
His answer is to create more competitive balance by “equilibrating the strength”.
This means a European Super League. I point out that Napoli were not actually in the previously announced — and rapidly curtailed — Super League in 2021, with only Inter, Milan and Juventus selected from Italy in the initial roll-out. He says he had some conversations with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez. De Laurentiis did not agree with the selection criteria, which simply named clubs, rather than taking those who finished in the top three, four or five from a league. “That made everybody unhappy,” De Laurentiis says.
His idea, short on clear details, seems to be broader, implying a pan-European league across a whole season, rather than merely a Champions League alternative. He spitballs the make-up. “Probably France has three important teams. Germany, four. Italy, five: Juventus, Inter, Milan, Napoli, Roma. England, five important teams, Spain, four important teams. You put it together and you generate a real great competition.
“You then keep the best remaining teams of Serie A and the best of Serie B to become the new Serie A — OK!”
The following evening, during a panel event at his premiere, he floats another idea to his American audience. First, he admonishes MLS for “collecting players by paying them a lot of money at the end of their careers… which doesn’t bring anything.”
Then another: “Why don’t they propose to Ceferin to take three to five big American teams to play in the Champions League?” he ponders. “The best of New York, the best of Boston…” The smile is back.
If De Laurentiis’ position on a Super League may not win favour among many football fans, he is not seeking friends. His relationship with Napoli supporters has run hot and cold, at times clashing over ticket prices, and his perceived restraint in the transfer market. During matches, he says he “becomes an ultra”.
“The fans are my client, so I work for them,” he says. “I must take always into consideration what they think. But in my role as president, I must be always equilibrated.
“I say: I’m the president. You are the supporters. I love you. If you love me, fine. If you don’t love me, I don’t know what to do. But I’m the owner and I’m responsible. So you want to win. But we cannot go in bankruptcy because once you went in bankruptcy — but with me, it will never happen again.”
De Laurentiis’ relationship with Napoli fans has run hot and cold (Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)
He laughs as he talks about player loyalty. “The fans want to win and they think players will honour their jersey forever. But it’s not true! They honour only the money. There are just a few cases (of loyalty). I had a fantastic guy, Marek Hamsik, who was the captain of our team. He remained with us forever. But that is just one case.”
A major decision during Conte’s Scudetto-winning campaign was to sell Kvaratskhelia to Paris Saint-Germain in the January window.
“When we started with Conte, we received an offer of €200m (£175m; $234m) from PSG and others to sell Victor Osimhen and Kvara together. Mr Conte said, ‘Osimhen you can sell, but please don’t sell Kvara’.
This, De Laurentiis says, was a… you guessed it, “big mistake”.
“Because after, I had the big trouble with Kvara’s father and agent.”
He claims the player’s advisors were prepared to try to invoke FIFA’s Article 17 to get out of his contract. In the documentary, De Laurentiis explains: “Any player aged under 28, after three years of contract, can free himself for next to nothing. And since this player and his agent were absolutely determined to leave Naples, I decided it was better to sell him.” (Kvaratskhelia’s father was approached for comment).
He continues: “The coach was not happy because you are telling him I need to do it for legal problem. I’m trying to change these rules. Because if you make some investment, you cannot be blackmailed by anybody.”
In the film business, he must come across tricky agents too.
“In the movie business in America, the agent is very important because the agent can create a real success for a director, writer or actor. In soccer, the agent is only a vampire who sucks money from everywhere!”
Napoli’s relationship with Conte is now two years old. He has a year remaining on his contract. Rumours swirl about a return to the national team, which Conte coached for two years from 2014.
Between him and De Laurentiis, you can imagine things may get spicy. Yet the way De Laurentiis tells it, it all sounds rather dream-like.
Antonio Conte is welcomed as the new manager of Napoli by Aurelio De Laurentiis (Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)
“We met 10 years ago in the Maldivian islands,” he begins. “We were on vacation, swimming together. I met his wife and his daughter. While we were fishing, he told me his theory about soccer. He fascinated me. He was like a writer telling to me a big, huge, incredible movie to be made. When the moment arrived, I did not hesitate to contact him and to convince him to come to train Napoli. And it was a good marriage.
“Antonio is like… do you remember the Stanley Kubrick movie about the military?”
He means Full Metal Jacket (1987), framed around a drill sergeant who uses punishing methods to prepare the troops for combat in the Vietnam War.
“Baa baa baa baa baa baa baa baa baa,” sings De Laurentiis, bobbing in his seat to the soundtrack. “That is Antonio Conte. When you are working for 100million supporters, you have a huge responsibility. You cannot joke. But the players are 17, 18, 21 years old. They are kids, they drive Ferraris or Aston Martins, so they can make mistakes. So you must govern them with very solid hands. Antonio is perfect from that point of view. Plus, he’s a big trainer because he has a concept of how to defend. When you defend, probably you win. If you just want to attack, probably you lose. Maybe it is more exciting, but probably you don’t win anything.”
Will Conte leave? De Laurentiis says he wants a quick decision.
“Number one, we don’t have, as of now, a head of the federation (the president Gabriele Gravina resigned). So nobody can decide to ask him. So first, we must solve the problem of the federation.
“Otherwise, we must wait for new federation elections, the middle of June. Antonio Conte is a very serious man. He has a contract with me. He will never abandon me at the last minute. Because it will create for Napoli a big problem. If he sacrifices himself after two years of creating a very strong Napoli… it is also his creation. So he will kill his baby, abandoning him just at the last minute.
“Or… he decides immediately and says ‘I would like to go’. Then I have the time during April and May to find somebody else to make the substitution. Otherwise, I don’t think Mr Conte will ever abandon Napoli. He’s a serious, professional man. If I was a coach, before to accept, I will think 100 times.”
And, what of you, Mr President? Would you ever retire? He looks aghast at the question.
“Then I must die!,” he says, utterly appalled.
If anything, he says, he may dive back into movie-making for a special project that catches his eye. Then, he would need to decide whether to pass the club to his children, or sell it on if the children are more interested in other pursuits.
“But I like to work more than play golf, more than playing tennis, more than being on vacation. I do a fantastic job and I felt all my life as though I was on vacation all the time.”
