Serie D side Parma Calcio 1913 General Manager Luca Carra did not hesitate to admit that "this is still very much the beginning" for the club, which is the official name of the entity that was rebooted this month "after its predecessor in this complex, the storied Parma F.C., went broke," according to Sam Borden of the N.Y. TIMES. The new group "has a long list of issues to confront, too, among them multiyear financial projections for the club’s attempt to rise from the depths" of Italian football and the plans of the club’s creditors to auction off "virtually everything from the stadium and the training ground, even the shining silverware in the lobby’s trophy case." During a visit this month, Carra’s concerns "included items as minor as where to find coffee." Carra said, "We got a deal with this restaurant across the street where they bring over breakfast, so that’s been good." The entire setup "is, on many levels, a paradox." Parma (the old version) was a part of Italian football "for more than a century, finally coming into the spotlight in the early 1990s." It won eight major titles from '92-02, including three Italian Cups and the UEFA Cup -- now the Europa League -- in '95 and '99. Now, Parma (the new version) "has fewer than 10 employees on the business side, a master plan that seeks to overhaul the core philosophy of Italian club ownership and, ultimately, grand designs on earning promotion this season from Italy’s fourth division, Serie D." Marco Ferrari, a digital entrepreneur who is moonlighting as the club’s vice chairman, said, "What we are trying to do here is quite ambitious. We have an entirely new approach for an Italian club and an entirely new model. But we think the system is broken and this is what it needs." Certainly, "it is difficult to dispute the rationale."
NOT ALONE WITH MONEY WOES: Money problems "have plagued clubs in virtually every country hit hard by the European financial crisis, and Parma is far from the only Italian club to fall into disarray." Parma’s struggles, though, "had by far the highest profile." Financial questions "lingered over the club as far back as 2003, when its principal owner, the dairy conglomerate Parmalat, went bankrupt amid allegations of corporate corruption." For most of the '14-15 season, the players "were not paid, and the team’s creditors hounded the club for payment on debts" that Ferrari said reached nearly €200M (now about $220M). For players on a team in one of the top five football leagues in the world, "the entire season was nothing short of daily embarrassment." Giampetro Manenti and another exec, Pietro Leonardi, "only made matters worse by constantly maintaining that everything was going to be fine, said Alessandro Lucarelli, the team’s captain." Lucarelli said, "The feeling I remember the most is the feeling of anger. We were misled and mocked by them. They said there were no problems, and then they left us there to rot." Watching the news, Ferrari, a longtime fan, said that "he felt compelled to act." He immediately "began to recruit investors to reboot the club but made it clear that the group had to think in terms of a complete culture change." Ferrari "found six other investors," including pasta company Barilla Chair Guido Barilla and motorsports company Dallara Owner Gian Paolo Dallara.
GERMAN-STYLE PLAN: While "most Italian clubs hew to the old-style single-owner model," Ferrari and his group wanted the new Parma to set up something akin to the German club model. In Germany, clubs "have multiple shareholders, but fans own a stake in the team as well; the system has won praise for delivering stability and responsible spending." Carra said that the group of Parma investors combined to put up about €2.5M ($2.7M) and will own 75% of the club’s shares. The other 25%, Ferrari said, will be sold to fans, "who will also have a guaranteed presence on the board of directors." In one week, 200 fans made at least the minimum buy-in of €500 ($554), Ferrari said, with some putting in as much as €40,000 ($44,300). The club’s goal "is to have at least 1,000 citizen shareholders by October." Ferrari said, "We don’t want their money; we want their loyalty" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/17).
