UEFA picks Italian boss as marketing director.(Union of European Football Associations)

UEFA, the European football governing body, has raided the Italian league to hire Giorgio Marchetti as director of professional football and marketing.

Marchetti will join UEFA on February 1 next year. He replaces Swede Lars-Christer Olsson, the former marketing chief, who becomes UEFA chief executive on January 1.

Marchetti, 43, has been general secretary of the Italian Professional Football League since 1997, and is a member of UEFA's Professional Football Committee, as well as a co-ordinator of the European Union Premier Professional Football Leagues.

His remit will include the marketing of UEFA's most important commercial properties: the European …