A first sigh of relief. The bank transfer promised by Mark Campbellafter an exhausting wait, has arrived. Beyond some once again irregular aspects – no official communication from the company Taranto football but only unofficial confirmations from internal sources after the media partner’s announcement – this is certainly good news. The sum stands at around 270 thousand euros and is used to cover the main tasks, starting with the salaries of the company staff, primarily the players. It is also the first move attributable to Mark Campbell, representative of the fund Apex who signed a pre-agreement with former president Massimo Giove in recent days to take over the club.
INSIGHTS
Other details on the transfer were not provided even though the transaction was at the center of a press conference called by the Municipality last week. But, reconstructing the path of the coveted novelty, the payment order should have left about two weeks ago from the Apex fund through an American bank. And, at the same time, one of the most important Italian banking institutions immediately provided reassurances to the League to try to avoid the penalisation. A sort of desperate move which however will not save Taranto from future point deductions.
At least, as mentioned, this capital injection will allow Taranto to honor the financial deadlines towards the players and probably settle other pending matters.
The future
What happens now? What will be the next steps? Unfortunately, it remains complicated to answer these questions in the face of the moment of lack of clarity that persists. Let’s start from what – little – said by Campbell during the press conference held last Monday: for the closing, i.e. the closing of the operation with Massimo Giove, “it will take another two weeks”. Doing the math, therefore, at least until the end of next week there should be no news on the definition. The operation envisages that Giove will remain with a share ranging from 1 to 2 percent, but it is not clear whether this part will be registered directly in the name of the former president or in a satellite company. Just as the entrepreneur – or entrepreneurs – behind the Apex fund has not been revealed: beyond whispers about exotic names or Serie A promises shouted from the rooftops, the solidity of the group is the first and essential reassurance that the entire market wants to have.
The hope is therefore that this transfer is only the first imprinting of the new management, regardless of who the investors are. No one in the city can cheer against a team that is perhaps the only rallying point capable of making people go beyond any personal conviction. However, a rather surreal atmosphere remains and is the result of the silences that accompany this negotiation. Net of confidential information which, it is clear, cannot be revealed before the closing.
Maybe even news like the arrival of a bank transfer, a phase one fate of the new Taranto, managed in a more linear way would have helped to calm people’s minds. Also because among the key topics of Mark Campbell’s press conference presentation there was precisely the bank transfer issue: what better news, then, to provide details on what is happening around the Taranto galaxy? Evidently, all the fans’ request for clarity and transparency was not understood or even mistaken for defeatism. But defeatism is erased with facts: the bank transfer is the first, the hope is that others will arrive – perhaps accompanied by greater incisiveness in communication – to dispel the fog that still remains.
