How can a club accumulate over 200 million euro worth of debt without any of the relevant authorities noticing.
The situation that has become Parma is shameful, a club at the top reaches of the Italian game being left go to ruin due to the incompetence of those in the seats of power. Yet while the Parma saga is sad for Italian football the scary reality is that it may only be the tip of a much larger Iceberg.
We all know that the heyday of Italian football existed from the mid 90’s to the early 2000’s. It was a time when money was no object and thrown around like confetti at a wedding. This period brought about unprecedented success for Italian clubs, but now that the party is over Calcio is facing into a long and painful hangover a hangover it refuses to acknowledge. Yet it must recognise it and sooner rather than later if football on the peninsula is to have a brighter future.
While the media concentrated on the events unfolding at the Gialloblu and Juventus run to the Champions League final unknown to the wider public four more clubs went to the wall. The paint was barely dry on another season when news came through that Barletta, Grosseto, Monza and Castiglione were folding due to financial reasons. Why does one care you might say these are only little Lega Pro clubs, however there failure is the sign of an epidemic that has effected the very heart of the Italian game.
Since 2010 over 36 clubs from Lega Pro and up have failed because their finances were in disarray. Think about that that is over seven clubs a season vanishing from the map. For anyone constructing a business model it must be obvious that this way of doing things is surely unsustainable. Yet the authorities continue to bury their head in the sand and it was only when there TV rights money became in jeopardy due to Parma’s refusal to play that they stepped in and tried to do anything.
With the collapse of the four clubs mentioned above, Lega Pro now only has 56 of the 60 spots filled for the opening week of the 2015/2016 season, yet even that number is a falsehood. Up to earlier this week a further 12 teams had failed to provide the €400,000 registration fee for the upcoming campaign even though they’ve registered an interest in competing at the level. The 12 clubs hanging on by a thread are Benevento, Lupa Castelli Romani, Ischia, Martina Franca, Paganese, Pisa, Reggina, Savona, Varese, Venezia, Vigor Lamezia and Real Vicenza.
Let’s say that over the coming weeks that six of the above teams are unable to come up with the money. This would lead to their expulsion from Lega Pro leaving the league ten teams light for the new season. The question then is where are Lega Pro going to get another ten teams to fill their places? The answer is more than likely that they will just cherry pick clubs from Serie D and promote them to take their places. However those clubs that have been picked will already have budgeted for a year at the Semi-Pro level and now in a desperate attempt to survive in the professional ranks they will go and spend money they do not have creating a vicious cycle that will see more clubs fail when the beginning of the 2016/2017 season comes around.
For all that this is a problem at the lower levels of the Italian game it is ever more beginning to seep into the bedrock that is Serie A. In 2014 when the finances of the 20 teams in the top flight were released it emerge that only six of the 20 clubs had run a profit for the previous year. What’s more the profits that were put up by some of the clubs was pitiful, with Fiorentina running the lowest amount of just over €5 million. While the success of clubs in Europe this season is sure to boost the coffers of all involved it is hardly enough to suggest that the league as a whole is in a healthy financial state.
In fact only in the past couple of days the President of the FIGC Carlo Tavecchio has come out and said that things are not all that rosy in the Serie A garden. This is what he had to say on the clubs finances, “This year we’ve read all the balance sheets and there are clubs in difficulty even in the big cities.”
We’ve warned them for next season certain parameters will have to be respected or else they are out.”
If these parameters were operational (This season 2015/16) only five clubs would be registered for next seasons Serie A.”
Think about that for a moment only five clubs in Serie A are in good enough financial state to abide by new guidelines to be introduced by the FIGC. So if that is the state of play come the 2016/17 season, and I can’t see much changing, will the FIGC have the guts to expel ¾’s of the teams from the league of course not. So where does this leave the league in the short and long term. Sadly there is no easy answer to this question, but if the demise of Parma can bring about one good thing maybe it will see the men in charge sit up and take notice of the crisis effecting all levels of the Italian game.
The clubs who have gone bust since 2010
Viareggio, Castel Rigone, Treviso, Portogruaro, Tritium, Andria Bat, Casale, Milazzo, Campobasso, Borgo a Buggiano, Siracusa, Piacenza, Montichiari, Giulianova, Ebolitana, Rodengo, Canavese, Sanremese, Crociati Noceto, Villacidrese, Sangiovannese, Pomezia, Ravenna, Salernitana, Gela, Lucchese, Cosenza, Atletico Roma, Triestina, Siena, Padova, Barletta, Monza, Castiglione, Grosseto and Parma.
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