Bologna –
Virtus Segafredo Bologna President Massimo Zanetti’s press conference held today at the “Hotel Savoia Regency”:
“I wanted to have this conference to explain and throw some water on the fire, on this fire that has been artificially created for a few months already, to make people believe that there are a lot of problems at Virtus, when in fact there has been no problem. You want to give an image of pressapochism, of constant arguments, and I don’t see the point. When I chose to bring a partner from Bologna into the company, I did it to consolidate Virtus more, and in function of a future that I don’t know when it will come. From there there was a desire at all costs to create issues. Carlo Gherardi and I are great friends, there was no prevarication on his part, in fact when I asked him he always helped Virtus, and for that I thank him. Just as I have done for 8 years, since Alberto Bucci asked me. I am very happy to help Virtus, and I continue to do so today.
Yesterday my advisor colleagues and I resigned, we had to do it to change all the advisors. In this way we will have a meeting soon and new councilors will be elected, and there will probably be no more Dr. Baraldi, actually he is not doctor, Mr. Baraldi. It is good to bring a breath of fresh air to this society. I with Mr. Baraldi have a sporting association born many years ago: Bologna soccer, cycling, basketball, he has always been a man I trusted, we have won many trophies and taken Virtus to the top. We won one cup a year, I can only thank him for his work. But like all things, they come to an end at some point, and it also applies to the old managers, and I’m talking about me as well. Did I sell 50 percent of the industrial part of Segafredo? I am not eternal, bringing in a partner happens in all companies. There is so much provincialism, boorish. This has been seen as me ending up who knows where. I continue as before, I have no problem and Virtus no problem. Few sports clubs have such solid ownership. Evidently the city of Bologna has been burned and is terrified that who knows what will happen, you can find it in the articles you write. Instead there is no problem and everything continues as before. Mr. Zanetti stays, Mr. Baraldi will go his own way. Paolo Ronci has all my confidence and he absolutely stays. The new thing will be Dr. Comellini, my collaborator for many years.
The future will be: Comellini will follow the administrative side, in close contact with the president, me. Paolo Ronci will follow the sports part, and he will be the only one who will talk to the press.
And I beg the journalists to talk only about basketball. Don’t talk about the company anymore, or else we’ll do like Scariolo, who I then let go. Ditto someone else. The society is taken care of by me and Carlo Gherardi. In other societies do you talk about capital increases? Many times you write things that I don’t even know. A tension has been created over time, and I would beg you not to do it again. If we have problems with results this year, it is due to a destabilization that has been going on since June, inside and outside the company. The team is affected, it’s not like the players are living in another world. I’m asking you to make sure that you don’t create more controversy, you probably had someone — you were able to carp about it somehow. But I repeat, there is no problem, and the last articles that have come out: the last player we are taking has already been destroyed, it seems we are taking a dead rat. That’s not the case. You have to try to help me out. Virtus is an invaluable asset of the city of Bologna. You must try to help Virtus, not create problems for it. Doing the assembly now or in June would have changed little. A budget was done last June, then September, then December, and it was not good. And the other day we did the fourth budget in a year, the fourth capital increase that Gherardi and I will have to underwrite. It seems to me that such a situation is not very normal. And before I made this decision I thought about it very, very much. I remember one thing that hurt me a lot, however, I accepted it because the majority wanted it that way. In the June budget we took out the women’s team, which I cared so much about. In a budget of 23 million, then 20, it seemed that 700,000 of the women’s was the problem. Then four budgets were made in the millions. The sports side and the administrative side had nothing to do with it, now I divided them up nicely. It’s not that by making this change the players are losing out, on the contrary. I spoke with Petrucci and Gandini this morning and found a lot of understanding. Was the decision shared with Gherardi? Absolutely, I would be a fool if I had not talked to Gherardi about this. He – new in the sports business – was more moderate and asked for another week. But we shared it, and it’s not a bolt out of the blue. I’ve been complaining to him for a while.
What do I expect? Nothing, we have set budgets and capital increases, which will be in the coming months.
Hopefully, we will be so good at finding resources, so that less is needed. We set a budget, then if we need less — these are Baraldi’s numbers, who has already missed it four times.
The governance scheme? It’s my proposal, but it’s shared by Gherardi, who always tells me that on sports he has nothing to do with it, “do it yourself.” With him there is no problem, in the most absolute way.
With the Euroleague, relations have always been kept by Paolo Ronci, partly because Baraldi does not know English. The budget numbers to be presented in the Euroleague are prepared – on Baraldi’s numbers – by our Francesconi and Gualandi. Euroleague has no problem with Virtus, in fact it is honored and happy that we are there. I don’t think there are any problems, we have to keep the accounts straight and show that the society is calm.
The arena? That’s the thing that is closest to my heart. The first conferences we did in 2019, we are in 2025. When I said I was going to make the arena in Castel San Pietro with Gherardi giving me the land the ruckus happened, I thought I had moved something, instead nothing. It’s difficult, it takes a lot of patience. Slowly things get done, I hope to get there and not die first, but I’m convinced I’ll get there, for me it’s a milestone.
The Segafredo brand is ending this year because in there I have partners who have rightly decided to stop spending in the sport. I am already moving to find new sponsors, there will be a new name, valuable because it’s a lot of money… and we’ll see if it will be one or two.
Marco Comellini – I’m excited, I’m from Bologna and I’ve been supporting Virtus for 56 years. I have 30 years of experience in marketing, and I have worked with Dr. Zanetti for many years. I am a great believer in a serene and motivating environment at work. We will work together in the same direction.
