On the 16th April 2011 a new chapter in Calcio history was written. American tycoon Thomas Di Benedetto completed his takeover of AS Roma and, in doing so, made the capital club the only Serie A side to have a foreign owner.
Di Benedetto has made encouraging noises about the direction he wants Roma to go in. “At the moment Roma are a princess and we want to make her into a queen. In reality, we’d like to win the Scudetto next season.” He also expressed his love for i Lupi in an attempt to alleviate the doubts of the fans over foreign ownership. “Roma are a great squad and the passion of their supporters is second to none. I tell the fans, Forza Roma!”
The Giallorossi faithful won’t be getting too carried away after a decade of near-misses and near-bankruptcies, but in the eyes of many, non-Italian investment is a step in the right direction. By opening themselves up to the world, Italian teams have the opportunity to find foreign buyers with deeper pockets than those of the owners they already have and compete with the wealthy English and Spanish leagues once more.
There is nothing in the FIGC rules that makes it exceptionally difficult for international buyers to take over an Italian team. But there are plenty who are wary of overseas influence. They cite a lack of attachment to the club they own and Italy as a whole, coupled with a potential can of worms which could be opened by swinging the Serie A doors open to a world of fiscal instability. And nowhere provides a better example than the Premier League, the world’s most popular football division.
Take the two clubs owned by billionaires from the UAE. Manchester City have enjoyed several high-profile transfers bankrolled by Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi, and as a result are close to realising their Champions League dream.
Then have a look at Portsmouth. The southern English team were taken over by Sulaiman Al-Fahim, the very man who brokered the deal between Man City and the Abu Dhabi United Group owned by Mansour. It soon emerged that Al-Fahim’s Portsmouth did not have as much financial clout as City, as Pompey’s best players from the FA Cup-winning side of the previous year left the club for pastures new.
With a severely weakened side, Portsmouth lost their first six games of the season. Al-Fahim was gone by October. Portsmouth were relegated and are now in the Championship, with a return to the top flight in the future hard to see.
Italian sceptics of foreign ownership also point to the new UEFA financial play rules. European clubs could now be banned from the Champions League and Europa League from 2014-15 if they spend more money than they earn from now until then. This could be a big problem for Manchester City. City have recently made losses of £12 million, meaning that, despite the seemingly infinite wealth of Sheikh Mansour, they face an uphill struggle to comply with the new regulations.
Owners from abroad, especially those buying smaller clubs with the intention of getting them into Europe, tend to be looked upon with more scepticism from the fans than investors from within the country. Therefore they may be too cavalier in the way they spend money in a big to win the hearts of the faithful, and could then be punished by UEFA.
Other English clubs like Manchester United have relatively new foreign investors who have gotten into debt just to buy their teams. If this debt cannot be minimised, these clubs also face a ban. While big Premier League clubs are at risk of falling short of UEFA standards, the same cannot be said of Silvio Berlusconi’s Milan and Massimo Moratti’s Inter.
But for all the stories of patrons from abroad ruining clubs, let us not forget that just last decade, two big Italian teams plunged into lower echelons of the football pyramid, with two more nearly following suit. Due to reckless ownership and crushing debts, Fiorentina and Napoli folded in 2002 and 2004 respectively and had to reform under different names, only buying back their old identity later. Lazio nearly suffered the same fate when club president Sergio Cragnotti became involved in a financial scandal, and the same thing happened to Parma.
The process of large clubs going bankrupt due to fraud, mismanagement or lack of investment is still going on. Messina played in Serie A as recently as 2007 but were excluded from professional football after bankruptcy and, unbelievably, now compete in Serie D, an amateur league.
So with Italian investors seemingly as unreliable as foreign ones, it comes down to who has the most money. And, quite obviously, there are many more rich people outside Italy than within. Of course, it would be nice for Italian clubs to be owned by local investors, but if Serie A is to compete financially with the Premier League – as it currently cannot – the doors may have to be opened to international billionaires. And, especially when we look at what we already have in Berlusconi, Zamparini, Cellino and the gang, why not?
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Nice that it’s an Italian American. Could be worse. It could be like the “English” league where all of the big teams are foreign owned and the majority of the players in the league are foreign too. Forza Roma!