Tomorrow morning appointment between the parties, the sale of Sampdoria from Massimo Ferrero to the new suitor who has lined up all the others: an Arab and two other tycoons made in the USA. Negotiation started until Sunday evening which today (Monday) has suddenly come to a halt. The rock on which one is (temporarily?) stranded the comparison concerns the severance pay requested by Ferrero: 40 million euros. It comes to the bitter end. The deadline is set for next Sunday. If nothing were done, the sale of the Sampdoria club would be skipped and Ferrero would be forced to face the creditors of his two companies in the composition with creditors, Eleven Finance and Farvem, crushed by 160 million in debts. Sampdoria had been placed as a guarantee for the agreements and its sale had become non-postponable.
It was only necessary to wait for the creditors’ okay and the court approval. The major creditors, the Swedish financial company Hoist and the Italian tax authorities, informally said they were willing to immediately accept the agreement proposed by the bankruptcy court of Rome: 17.5 million euros obtained from the sale of Sampdoria, in addition to another 23 (for a total of about forty million) from the sale of cinemas and housing in the belly of the two companies Ef and Farvem. Gianluca Vidal, Ferrero’s right-hand man in charge of managing the trust in which Sampdoria was inserted, had opened the dance. Expressions of interest by some foreign investors and in recent days, the sprint by the US Fund. Time is running out. If the sale is not reached by next Sunday, the agreements will take up the old road again. The creditors could stiffen and deny the agreement to the agreements themselves, in that case Ef and Farvem would fall into bankruptcy and with them also Sampdoria will follow..
Thus begins the last chapter of the saga of Massimo Ferrero, owner and president of Sampdoria by grace received from the Garrone-Mondini family who gave him the club seven years ago, subsidizing him with a few tens of millions. Three suitors had knocked on the door of the picaresque son of Testaccio, who was incredibly transplanted to Genoa on the Sampdoria side: two Americans and a mysterious Arab. Now on the hot table is the offer of the US Investment Fund, which has signed a confidentiality pact and whose name is not filtered out. Gianluca Vialli would take office at the top of the new Sampdoria company, already indicated by the Knaster-Dinan duo in 2019, when the negotiation for the acquisition of Sampdoria failed on the wire. The name of the current head of the delegation of the national team is now back in the limelight. If the sale with the American Fund goes through in the current week (the deadline is that) Vialli will be the standard bearer of the new Sampdoria. And with him will land under the Lantern other veterans of the championship gold Sampdoria. Maybe someone from Roberto Mancini’s blue staff, but not the coach who signed with the Federcalcio until 2026. The dream of seeing the Gemini scoring again in the Sampdoria remains in the drawer for now.
It is therefore a race at the last mile that is about to end between Ferrero and those who want to buy the company that belonged to Paolo, the archetype opposite of the character who has seized his sporting and moral heritage and now, crushed by the mountain of debts never honored by his family companies, is forced to listen to those who try to snatch the creature that made him rich and famous. Tomorrow morning, therefore, an appointment with representatives of the US fund is on the agenda, which has some real estate investment projects ready in the two Rivieras. If he becomes the owner of Sampdoria, he will talk about it with the public administrations concerned, Liguria Region in the lead. A third American tycoon, a West Coast tycoon who was a great friend of Donald Trump, claimed he wanted to invest 650 million dollars in Sampdoria and wanted to start large real estate projects in the city, starting with the construction of the new stadium on the sea of Sampdoria. But he went on stand-by for personal reasons and seems to have turned his attention to Lugano football. In Canton Ticino he would like to create a football school drawing young people from South America and Africa.
So full force ahead with the “free” negotiation but up to a certain point: Ferrero (or rather the trustee Vidal, in charge of the negotiations by law) can proceed with the sale of Sampdoria as long as the collection covers those famous 17.5 million. The rest, if there were, would go into Ferrero’s pocket. Legitimately. If we keep the rumor of the 40 million severance pay, we would approach an overall valuation of Sampdoria around 160 million. Too many: more realistic to imagine a closing between 140 and 150 million euros. In fact, the club’s debt situation is close to 100 million euros; almost 50 (47 to be exact) were started from June to December 2020 through loans guaranteed by Sace, i.e. by the State.
Covid19 hit hard and blew up cost estimates and contthe. Sampdoria closed the last financial statements with almost 15 million in operating liabilities and saw the value of production drop from 129 million and 76 million euros. There is no more tripe for cats for “the worker president” (Ferrero had defined himself that way) and therefore everyone sat at the table to discover the cards.
How will you get out of the severance pay impasse? The most accredited reconstruction suggests this scheme: Ferrero goes on the market and sells a couple of players including Damsgaard, Audero, Thorsby, Jankto, Colley, Bereszynski, Augello, collects 25-30 million euros and putting that cash in the cash eases the situation of the next budget, allowing the buyer to increase the cash offer. From there, the severance payment desired by the president would also emerge. Maybe with a little help provided by the Garrone family… Who monitors the development of the deal in absolute discretion and will have its say at the time of closing. The formula is still open: direct transfer in good-natured agreement with the ok of the judge and the agreement of all the parties or preliminary agreement with closing postponed by a few months and payment of a deposit of 30% of the total. In this last case, Ferrero would formally remain at the helm of Sampdoria for a few months.
The current week will be decisive for writing the destinies of Sampdoria. If the negotiations with the US Fund ultimately fail, Ferrero will go ahead with his own forces which are very modest. With D’Aversa the coach just officially announced (tomorrow, Tuesday the presentation) and probably with Faggiano dg with wide market powers, commanded to sacrifice the best roosters in the hen house. But that Sampdoria will have little life ahead. Within a few months, the concordats will conclude their process. If the homologation arrives in front of a reasonable offer (17.5 million euros) Ferrero would be forced (and no longer free) to sell Sampdoria. In case of rejection of the agreements instead for EF and Farvem the abyss of bankruptcy would open, which would also swallow Sampdoria. In this last case, Ferrero would lose all his possessions without collecting a single euro. Will he want to take this risk? A few days and we will know.
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