Newsletter

Sampdoria is taking a big risk

Loading player

After the last defeat in the league, Sampdoria are last in the standings with just 3 points scored in 10 games. He still has to win, he has conceded 13 more goals than he did and has already changed coach once. However, the situation in the standings and the modest quality of the squad are not his main concerns.

At the end of the match played last Monday against Roma, a member of the board of directors speculated to the press a possible bankruptcy if the company were not able to find at least 40 million euros as soon as possible. It is the sum requested by the creditors of Massimo Ferrero, the former president, but still owner, arrested last December and now on trial for fraudulent bankruptcy and other crimes related to some companies owned by him.

Following the arrest, Ferrero had resigned from his roles in Sampdoria, also because he was banned from any managerial position. Previously, however, he had separated Sampdoria from the rest of its companies by entrusting it to a trust, that is to a fiduciary in charge of looking after its interests and negotiating a possible sale, which in this case would settle the debts and pending charges against the property.

The decline of Sampdoria has been going on for eight years, although it was initially disguised. In 2014, the former owner Edoardo Garrone got rid of the club, also under pressure from the rest of his family, a year after the death of his father Riccardo, who in 2002 had taken over Sampdoria and saved it from probable bankruptcy.

There was no real negotiation, given that Garrone gave Sampdoria for free to the only person who had shown interest: Ferrero, in fact, known mostly for being a film producer, but also active in the tourism sector with various companies. Just on the day he was introduced as the new owner of Sampdoria, Ferrero pledged a sentence of one year and ten months for fraudulent bankruptcy for the bankruptcy of one of his airlines.

Yet Ferrero not only received Sampdoria for free, but also found more than 65 million euros left by the Garrone to ensure continuity of management in the years to come. Thanks to these funds, for a few seasons Ferrero’s Sampdoria has actually worked and achieved decent results in Serie A. Now, however, that money is gone and the real problems are slowly emerging.

(Claudio Grassi / LaPresse)

In 2019 the good results obtained, combined with a certain economic attractiveness, attracted the interest of new investors, in particular an American group represented in Italy by the former football player Gianluca Vialli. In that case, Garrone also publicly exposed himself by advising Ferrero to sell the company at that favorable moment, but the negotiation ended with nothing, according to the reconstructions due to the too high demands made by Ferrero.

Since then there has been the pandemic, which has worsened the accounts of the teams, including Sampdoria, whose debts are now at least 140 million euros. Ferrero has been arrested, his financial situation has allegedly worsened and in recent weeks he will have to prove that he did not commit the financial crimes he was accused of. As things have turned out, there are those who fear that now Sampdoria may become the object of speculation and get stuck in its owner’s problems.

For some time there has been talk of negotiations with an Arab investor, Faleh Khalid Al Thani, who belongs to the royal family of Qatar. Initially it seemed to close in the summer, but it did not happen, and therefore the current management had to build a team without funds and do not even have any to cope with the next tasks. In all this, the harsh criticism of Ferrero was joined by those of the former owner Garrone, accused of having left the team to an unreliable person.

That the climate around Sampdoria is not the best was also understood last Monday, when Ferrero appeared in the stands at the Ferraris stadium by surprise, causing quite a few disturbances (for which he had to leave shortly after protected by an escort). The following day, the board of directors appointed last December and chaired by former player Marco Lanna wrote in a statement that Ferrero’s presence “was not planned or in any way endorsed by the board itself or by any employee of the company”. The board also hinted at possible resignations.

In these days, Al Thani is expected to pay 40 million euros to Sampdoria, a sum that on the one hand should serve to buffer the club’s worrying financial situation and on the other would give a positive signal in the context of the sale negotiation.

If, on the other hand, things do not change, relegation could be the least damage, given the difficulties in finding new buyers (in the meantime part of the group in negotiations in 2019 bought the Pisa). A similar thing had happened last season to the other city team, Genoa, relegated to Serie B and previously acquired by a foreign investment fund after years of disputes over the management of the previous owner, Enrico Preziosi.

– Read also: The English rugby league is collapsing

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending