​Serie A club Napoli's President Aurelio De Laurentiis suggests that the Italian league should be reduced to 16 teams but reckons that it won't ever happen because the league lies to the smaller teams.





The Italian football league has gone through a lot of format-changes over the years. The League had 16 clubs in the year 1987-88 and it became a 20 club league in the year 2003-04.





Speaking to ​Radio 24, De Laurentiis slammed the Italian league authorities as he said, "Football in Italy is led by people who have the mentality of 20-30 years ago."





#Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis wants #SerieA cut to 16 teams, "but they lie to the small clubs" https://t.co/zbHXltZcFZ pic.twitter.com/QVBmwczgKx — footballitalia (@footballitalia) September 22, 2017





He continued, "In 1986, Serie A had 16 teams, and if that was still the case, everyone would be happier. I would cut the number of clubs participating with just one relegation spot."





De Laurentiis recalled a conversation with the FIGC President and said, "I spoke to Carlo Tavecchio about this. There are teams that lose 6-0 and it's no good for anyone."





Seeming dejected, he continued, "It won't happen though. (TV rights company) Infront lie to the small clubs, but it's no good for those who want Italian football to be competitive."





Speaking about how Serie A needs to be more marketable for sponsorship opportunities, De Laurentiis concluded, "It is time to sell our Serie A properly, as we are so far behind. La Liga gets €700m for overseas rights, so I don't understand why we should have to make do with

€300-400m. They only have Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barcelona. We have Juventus, Napoli, Inter, Milan, Roma, Lazio, Fiorentina etc."

