ABU DHABI // The new UAE Etisalat Pro League looks to be in safe hands on the organisational front following the recruitment of the leading Italian administrator Romy Gai as the chief executive. The man who spent 14 years in his home city of Turin ensuring that Juventus kept pace with the other European football giants is relishing his next challenge.
Gai, approaching his 44th birthday, has gained an enormous amount of experience in his relatively short career culminating with his representing Juventus at meetings of Europe's elite G14 cartel of leading clubs and negotiating with Uefa on behalf of Italy in discussions about a revised agreement on media rights. Since leaving the Stadio delle Alpi two years ago he has worked for a cluster of international companies, notably Pepsi Cola, as a sports marketing consultant, until he got the call from the newly named UAE Football League (UFL) to take up his new appointment at their Abu Dhabi headquarters.
"I knew about life in this region because Juventus was the first Italian club to come here to play friendlies at the beginning of 2003," said Gai yesterday. "I had very good relations with the people here from the outset. They called me, offered this fantastic challenge and here I am." Gai, who has been involved in the administration of a variety of other sports including Formula One, golf, power boating and sailing, is aiming to make the UFL the envy of other neighbouring associations.
"We want to be one of the best leagues in the Asian Federation," he declared. "We want to make this league a role model for the rest of the continent and that will be our target during the next five years." He can hardly wait for his first taste of Emirati football as he looked forward to the Super Cup curtain-raiser to the 2008-9 season between Al Shabab and Al Ahli on Sept 14. "I really like this country," he enthused. "It is a country that is full of energy. A country where dreams can become reality. This is a tremendous opportunity for all of us to make those dreams come true."
Gai has been hard at work since his arrival on June 1 trying to maximise revenue for his member clubs to prosper. He was pleased to report that he and his colleagues have already sold half of the space on advertising boards at club grounds in what he called a "centralised package" to the bigger companies. That income, which he expects to increase further, will top up the considerable funding already guaranteed of Dh350million for television rights over the next five years and the Dh250m sponsorship from Etisalat.
Gai emphasised that the UFL will take only their operating costs from that financial windfall. "We are not seeking to make a profit," he explained. "So that is not an issue. Our intention is to give back as much as we can to our member clubs." Fifty per cent of what is left after the UFL expenses have been covered will be divided equally between the clubs, the rest of the money will be linked to achievement in a similar fashion to how prize money is paid out in the English Premier League. Work is already in progress on creating a revised system for ranking clubs on their level of performance.
Gai is thrilled by the welcome he has received from all of the 12 Pro League clubs he has visited and is impressed by the eagerness of officials at those clubs to tap into his greater experience. "I think there is going to be a higher level of professionalism both on and off the field from now on," he added. "We will introduce new criteria for all the venues. "We will have a couple of our people, who have international experience over a long period, helping the clubs in terms of showing them how to improve their capability and how to organise their affairs in a more professional way. That can only be good for the overall standard of the UFL." wjohnson@thenational.ae
