The banner on Parma’s Curva Nord was small in comparison to those around it but its message was loud and clear “Reggiani Maiali”. The words further accompanied by a picture of a rather hideous looking pig with a Reggiana scarf wrapped around its neck for full effect.
The Derby Dell’Enza between Parma and Reggiana is not one of Italy’s most famous encounters but the passion and hatred between the two clubs and cities that contest it is as ferocious as any other across the peninsula. Its relative obscurity among the annals of Italian derbies is perhaps mostly down to the fact that it hasn’t been contested since 1997.
Yet absence has most certainly not made the heart grow fonder between these two clubs, if anything it has only stoked the flames of contempt and dislike. However, 19 years of boiled up tension may soon be allowed to burst free come the start of the 2016/17 season.
Having been reborn last season after their financial demise Parma subsequently went on to win promotion from Serie D into Lega Pro. A league that their most bitter rivals Reggiana will call home for the 17th year in a row after once again flattering to deceive last campaign. Geographically speaking the two clubs look dead certs to be put in the same group but such is the fear of unruly behaviour at the fixture that Lega Pro are potentially planning on splitting them up into separate Girone’s
If they are placed together in the end however it may prove an eye opener to what the world of Italian football can be like for one particular individual. This person being Baseball legend Mike Piazza who on the 8th June acquired a majority share in Reggiana.
Better known for his exploits with the bat and glove, Piazza who is of Italian descent has been a long time follower of the Italian game and is known to hold a spot in his heart for Palermo. A club he was rumoured to be interested in buying in the past.
Indeed, only 18 months or so ago it looked as if Piazza was on the verge of buying Parma only for him to pull out due to the clubs crippling financial problems. Now the 47-year-old former catcher has turned up a 40 minute drive down the road with Reggiana.
While it will be great for Reggiana and Lega Pro as a whole to have someone of Piazza’s stature involved in the league, his choice of club is somewhat peculiar. While it obviously did not make financial sense to take over Parma the situation he has walked into at Reggiana is hardly full of sunshine and lollipops.
At his first press conference to announce his takeover of the club Piazza spoke in the broad general terms that most new owners do saying that he wanted to first stabilise the club and then grow the youth sector. On from that he spoke of how he wanted to entice in new sponsors and spread the brand of Reggiana to a more international audience. Whilst of course producing a competitive team on the field.
Of course this will sound like music to the ears of most Reggiana fans but how likely is it to come to fruition. As said above this is a club that has been stuck in Lega Pro for the last 17 years, it is not a top dog fallen on hard times but a provincial club struggling to make ends meet.
Something that they have failed to do in the not so distant past. Even still financially the club is not going to be able to spends its way out of the division like a certain other American at Venezia. When it comes to putting bums in seats Piazza again may be in for a bit of a shock. Last season the Granata averaged 4005 at their home matches, while this was second in their division to Padova it is a long way short of the stadiums 23000 capacity.
Speaking of stadiums this neatly leads us onto what will more than likely be the biggest hurdle in the way of Piazza and his attempts to make Reggiana a big club. The hurdle of course being in the shape of a club called Sassuolo.
This is something that I have wrote about on the site before, but in short, Reggiana were the first Italian club to privately build their own stadium however the financial implications of this saw and arguments with local government over a shopping centre to go with the stadium eventually saw the club go bankrupt.
To maintain the club’s existence, the stadium was eventually sold off but they continued to play there as tenants. Eventually the stadium itself was put up for auction, Reggiana despite still being financially unstable cobbled all the money they could to try buy back their home. In the end however their offer was easily out bid by one Giorgio Squinzi, the owner of Sassuolo football club.
Sassuolo had just been promoted to Serie A for the first time in their history and needed a stadium up to the requirements of the league. Reggiana were duly allowed to rent the stadium and use it as tenants but now had to suffer the ignominy of playing in a stadium that they once owned but were now only tenants in to another club.
What made the situation even worse for Reggiana was that Sassuolo were not only not native to the city of Reggio Emilia they weren’t even from the same province but in fact from the province of Modena.
Since then the Neroverdi have continue to go from strength to strength. With their eye catching football and tendency to give young Italians a chance earning them the plaudits and following of many around the country.
Needless to say this has proved somewhat detrimental to Reggiana having such a successful club on and off the pitch right on their doorstep. For Mike Piazza it is bound to cause one or two headaches to his plan of turning the club into a globally recognised name.
First and foremost, his attempts to bring in more sponsors to the club will surely be hindered by the fact that he has a club of Europa League standing literally playing in the same stadium as his. And with Reggiana floundering in Lega Pro it does not does not shout out as overly enticing.
With Sassuolo to his right Piazza must then contend with Parma to his left. Although the two clubs are playing in the same division Parma still has a worldwide recognition owning to its UEFA Cup winning days. This leaves Reggiana with very little market to expand into. Perhaps if he was to look at it from a Baseball perspective Reggiana are the Oakland A’s, a tiny market surrounded by the bigger markets of LA and San Francisco.
Taking that analogy, a step further Reggiana are the Oakland A’s but with a rather crappy draft selection every year.
So what is the next step for Piazza and the club, straight off the bat (No pun intended) he must realise that this is going to be a long term project and nothing will be transformed overnight. The immediate goal is to make the club as financially stable as possible, then he can start to try push the club to achieve promotion. A promotion that would hopefully bring more fans back to the stadium.
Long term if he is to truly bring Reggiana to new heights the whole stadium fiasco will have to gotten around in some way as only then will the Granata be fully able to grow as a club.
To all intents and purposes Piazza looks like a passionate man who does have a love for the game of calcio and that will stand him in good stead but passion and love will only get you so far in the mad world of Italian football. He wanted an Italian club and now he’s got one, whatever he does with them it’s going to be one damn tough assignment for Mike Piazza.
The post Mike Piazza and Reggiana: One tough assignment appeared first on IFD.
from IFD http://ift.tt/296iSXY
via IFTTT berita selengkapnya Follow @jadwalliga
