Growth Decree returns? What it means for Milan and player contracts [Bonus Article]

Just in the last week or so, the chances of the Growth Decree making a return to Italian football have increased substantially. After the tax relief was removed by the Giorgia Meloni administration at the end of 2023, above all the coalition party Forza Italia has been lobbying for it to be reinstated and this seems to have had the desired result. However, what does this mean for Milan?

There have been many questions regarding the Growth Decree in recent days and how its return could affect Milan. How does it work for players who took advantage of the Growth Decree when they joined? How does it work for players who didn’t? And does the Growth Decree apply to contract renewals? These are all questions that we will answer in this bonus, but first we need a bit of a recap.

As said at the start, the Growth Decree was removed by the Meloni administration by the end of 2023 and this had a huge impact on the football clubs. The idea at the time was that the removal would promote Italian youngsters and above all encourage clubs to focus on them. In theory, it was perhaps a good idea but less than 12 months after the change was imposed, it’s clear that it hasn’t benefitted the clubs.

Adriano Galliani, former AC Milan CEO. More on his involvement below!

It’s true that clubs suddenly were more inclined to focus on Italian players, also because of squad regulations, but equally the costs increased significantly. At the end of the day, money talks and not being able to entice foreign players with higher salaries - which are still lower than in the Premier League by the way - made the Serie A ecosystem less ‘powerful’.

The most frustrating thing was that the Meloni administration decided to scrap, or rather not renew, the Growth Decree for athletes. As far as we can tell, it has remained for other sectors (obviously with some exceptions) and the decision was thus a proper slap in the face. Not to mention that the clubs got very little support from the government during the Covid-19 pandemic when the situation was truly dire.

In any case, the political party Forza Italia (which used to be led by Silvio Berlusconi) has been pushing for the Growth Decree to be reinstated for athletes. The likes of Adriano Galliani (Monza CEO) and Claudio Lotito (Lazio president) are members of the party and have definitely had a big hand in this push. So we have them to thank in case the ‘amendment’ becomes a reality.

How current and future contracts are impacted