Believe it or not! The Italian second division Serie B leader football club has got the value of a mere €10 (₹ 800). The deal is done and closed.
The deal is confirmed by the Palermo club owner Maurizio Zamparini, who had bought the club in 2002 and stepped down as president last year. The colourful 77-year-old Italian businessman, who during the 16-year ownership of the club has appointed 45 managers, is known for his surprising decisions. His last one for Palermo happened to be the biggest surprise of them all.
Zamparini last year had stepped down as the Serie B club’s president after a failed takeover bid. And now he has sold off the club for a “symbolic” €10. Identity of the London-based buyer company is not disclosed.
“The objective for some time has been to find someone to continue my work with more financial power, capable of investments that I was no longer able to make,” Zamparini has reportedly said.
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“What we’ve managed, and sought for considerable time, is to find a partner that would be able to continue my work but with more financial firepower, and push for targets that can only be achieved with investments that, due in part to unfortunate recent legal developments in Palermo, I was no longer able to provide.”
However, the buyers will have to work towards settling the club’s outstanding €22.8 million debt (US$25.8 million) and will also put in plans to build a new stadium and training centre, Zamparini has added.
The club was relegated to Italy’s second-tier Serie B in 2017 but currently sit top of the table, one point clear of Lecce following the weekend’s latest fixtures.
The “profoundly sad” Zamparini has also said that he thought about the club’s future while making the decision to sell it as he had been looking for someone with greater financial powers to “continue his work”, including the construction the stadium, training ground and other facilities.
The club with Zamparini as the owner had qualified for Serie A in 2004 for the first time in 30 years. They also competed five times in European competition. They were relegated in 2013-14 but they bounced straight back to the Serie A as Serie B champions, only to be relegated again during the last season. They are the Serie B leaders now.
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