Juventus CEO Comolli: ‘Kelly decision frustrating, important to keep Spalletti’
Damien Comolli cut a bruised but defiant figure at the Financial Times Football Summit, speaking publicly for the first time since Juventus’ heartbreaking Champions League elimination at the hands of Galatasaray, a night he admits will take years to process.
“It will take years for me to get over it,” the Juventus CEO said plainly, with quotes via GianlucaDiMarzio.com, setting the tone for a candid address that touched on refereeing controversies, ownership stability, and the strategic roadmap he believes will eventually return the club to the summit of European football.
Comolli wasted little time in addressing the Lloyd Kelly red card that effectively ended Juventus’ hopes of completing a remarkable comeback. His frustration was barely concealed. “There was another very frustrating refereeing decision,” he said.
“I don’t understand how, for a game of this magnitude, they sent a referee who has only taken charge of ten Champions League matches in his entire career. Another incredibly frustrating red card that was never a red card, and we end up out of the Champions League. That game will hurt for many, many years, without doubt.”
He added a wry reference to a previous incident involving Inter, joking that he would try to avoid a UEFA suspension to go alongside the one he had already received from the FIGC.
Yet despite the raw emotion, Comolli was keen to emphasise that one result, however painful, would not alter the club’s decision-making philosophy. It is a stance that speaks to something deeper about how he believes elite sport should be run.
“A single game should not change the way we think,” he said. “We use data because data helps us make rational decisions in an incredibly emotional and irrational environment. I always tell people, we are paid to provide emotions, paid to create emotions, and paid to have no emotions when we make decisions.”
Juventus CEO Comolli: ‘Juventus must keep Spalletti’
On the question of what Juventus need to do to return to winning ways, Comolli’s answer was unequivocal, and pointed directly at Spalletti.
“If I had to answer today, I would say continuity,” he said. “It is important that we keep the same manager, the same strategy, the same style of play. This club has had six, seven, eight different coaches over two or three years. The team is finding its identity under Luciano Spalletti. Continuity, in alignment, in style, in the players who are showing their quality, is probably what we need if we want to succeed.”
The CEO also offered a revealing insight into his relationship with owner John Elkann, who works for the Agnelli family who have owned Juventus since 1923, the longest continuous ownership of any sports franchise in the world, as Comolli proudly noted.
He described a formative early conversation in which Elkann distilled the club’s values into three words, words Comolli says he intends to take to his grave.
“I use them constantly as a reference point,” he said.
“To stay aligned with him, and to align the rest of the club with the family’s values.”
On the subject of Tether’s minority stake and any speculation about a potential sale, Comolli was emphatic.
“John has been very clear, he will never sell the club. He was in the dressing room on Wednesday night to personally thank the players and the manager. He is incredibly involved, financially, emotionally, strategically.”
Comolli closed with a reflection on the weight of the job itself, one he clearly feels with intensity.
“What keeps me awake at night? Juventus,” he said.
“575 million fans globally, 200 million followers. I go to sleep thinking about Juventus, I dream about Juventus, I wake up Juventus. The responsibility to do things the right way is immense. I want to make the whole thing perfect and bring the club higher every single day.”