After months of silence, Edoardo Garrone makes his thoughts on Sampdoria known. Through a long press note released this afternoon in which he retraces the last stages of the complicated path that is involving Sampdoria. Garrone makes it clear that he has sided in favor of Alessandro Barnaba’s proposal, attributing the causes of the bankruptcy to the owners (the Ferreros) and to the Board of Directors, Lanna, Romei, Bosco and Panconi. Closing with an opening, that is, giving the willingness to be there in the presence of “serious projects” aimed only at the good of Sampdoria.
Here is the full text of the note:
Sampdoria has been experiencing a state of crisis since 2019 due to the general situation that has affected the President Massimo Ferrero and his companies. A subject who today receives very harsh judgments, but who until a few years ago was an integral part of the national football system on and off the playing field.
In vigilant and industrious silence I have always followed the corporate affairs of Sampdoria. I have not forgotten the sacrifices made by my family during the 12 years in which we have had the honor and the burden of having the responsibility of managing the company.
I have not forgotten my words of that June 11, 2019 and the atmosphere and circumstances that led up to that moment.
It was therefore normal for me, also due to the relationship of mutual esteem with Gianluca Vialli, to answer “present” when he asked me to help him in his attempts to acquire Sampdoria in 2019, supporting him in the negotiations and committing myself with him to subscribe a share of the investment together with other important international subjects. You will all remember Massimo Ferrero’s continuous push and pull and raises, which led Gianluca Vialli after almost a year and two attempts to withdraw the important offers.
Even before 2020, the year of the pandemic, the world of football had demonstrated all its difficulties and how much the management of a football team today requires, in addition to solid financial capacity, a set of specific skills: serious and sustainable business plans conducted by professionals with international experiences, visions and relationships.
When Alessandro Barnaba, in the first days of October 2022, asked me to meet him because he was interested in evaluating the acquisition of UC Sampdoria with his Merlyn Partner fund, I was happy first to help him better understand the general context and then to listen and evaluate his plan. The proposal of the Merlyn Fund was characterized by a very serious industrial plan for the rescue of the company and the relaunch of the team and envisaged a series of conditions for its realization and the observance of a precise timetable, well explained in the Merlyn press release of 5 last January. Also in this case, as already happened a few years earlier with the Vialli operation, considering the quality of the project and the professionalism in the field, we made ourselves available to evaluate the subscription, through our San Quirico holding company, of a share together with other international investors, should the conditions well highlighted by Alessandro Barnaba to make the operation feasible have occurred. This scenario, as we all well know, did not materialize.
The proposal by Barnaba and Merlyn Partner was not taken into consideration either by the owners, which evidently have other objectives but certainly not those of saving the company and relaunching the team, or by the Board of Directors which, with its refusal, condemned the bankruptcy it was the last, the only and the best solution capable of guaranteeing a positive future for Sampdoria. Instead, many confused hypotheses have been spread, not clarified and never verified by various subjects (including the banks involved) which have generated a climate of unjustified false hopes, thus hiding the true state of health of Sampdoria. Several times in the last few days, then taken up by various journalistic sources, I have been falsely and instrumentally involved in imaginative projects that do not see me present in any way.
The conditions set by a professional like Alessandro Barnaba, with a unique track record in Europe (the case of Lille is emblematic and represents one of the most beautiful stories of rescue, consequent relaunch and victory of a football championship in less than 2 years), together with his industrial plan, they were the key to the success of this very difficult rescue operation. The non-acceptance of the plan, of his
timing and conditions condemned the company to the dramatic scenarios that had already been well hypothesized and described by Barnabas in the previous weeks.
As demonstrated by the events briefly mentioned here, in the presence of serious, sustainable projects designed only for the good of Sampdoria, within a pool of investors, we have been there (first with Vialli and then with the Merlyn Fund) and we could be there in the future too. Today’s general context is unfortunately very far from this scenario and the consequences of the decisions that led to the failure of the last deal for the change of ownership and to give Sampdoria the future it deserves can only be attributed to the current owners and the its board of directors.
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