Serie A club Sampdoria receives Pig’s Head in a Box as a Threat to its President: Reports
The struggling club's fans are growing tired of the Massimo Ferrera ownership
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Serie A strugglers, Sampdoria received a pig’s head delivered to them anonymously on Saturday. The sinister ‘present’ was addressed to the former president and vice-president, reported Reuters.
The box threatened Massimo Ferrero, the former President and Antonio Romei, saying, ” the next heads will be yours”. The club released a statement regarding the incident and reported that police were called.
This is the second instance of the club leadership receiving life threats. Earlier in January, a blank bullet was delivered to the headquarters of the Genoa-based outfit. It was referred to Ferrero and the former owner of the club, Edoardo Garrone.
The club said in its statement that it is overwhelmed with “profound outrage and indignation in the face of yet another serious act of intimidation”. Despite stepping down from his position in 2021, Ferrero has been at the helm of the club through a family holding.
People in the know have reported that the continuous threats can be from a section of the fans. Ferrero is becoming increasingly unpopular with the fans of his alleged mismanagement of the finances.
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The 71-year-old, along with his daughter, was arrested in 2021 by the prosecutors of Paola in Calabria. It was alleged that his family holding was involved in money loitering. The club had published at the time, “It was with great astonishment that we learned of the execution today of a pre-trial detention order against Massimo Ferrero. It was a request from the public prosecutor’s office of Paola for bankruptcy related to events of many years ago. It is still unclear why the precautionary requirements were needed. In any case, it should be pointed out that these events are completely unrelated to the management and ownership of Sampdoria and Ferrero’s activities relating to the world of cinema.”
The Massimo Ferrero reign of Sampdoria
The renowned film producer, Massimo Ferrero, acquired the club from Edoardo Garrone’s family in 2014. The club was €15 million in debt at the time of the acquisition.
Ferrero, along with his partner Aurelio De Laurentiis showed made a lot of promises to make the club successful. Sampdoria, at that time, was a stable midtable club at that time. Coach Siniša Mihajlović got the team a difficult-to-beat side and they finished 7th in the Serie A.
Following a slump in the 15/16 season when they finished 15th, Il Doria came back in the 16/17 season under coach Marco Giampaolo. It even had some future stars like Bruno Fernandes and Patrick Schick on its roster. After finishing 10th in the league for three straight seasons, and then rising to ninth in 20/21, the club has started, what looks like, a freefall.
Currently, Sampdoria is 19th in the league with just 11 points from 23 games. They have lost 16 matches and have conceded 38 goals.
This is primarily due to Ferrero constantly selling the vital players of the teams for profit. Not just the players Ferrero’s constant chopping and changing even saw coaches like Claudio Ranieri and Giampaolo leave the club.
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Despite strong rumors of a change of hand in 19/20 to Jamie Dinan of the American investment fund York Capital Management, the deal fell through. The frugal habits of the owner also saw the club’s earnings not getting invested in the club. Club legend Gianluca Vialli was also tipped to become the president.
These, coupled with the current dismal form, are thought to be behind the constant threats being sent to Ferrero, to make him leave the club. It is almost certain that Sampdoria will go down this season after ten years in the top flight.
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Arpan Ghosh
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