Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis says he turned down a €2.5 billion offer to sell the club: ‘I don’t even care how much my Napoli is worth, it’s the family toy anyway and I don’t think about selling it at all.’ The controversial president has been the focus of sustained protests by part of the clubs fans in recent weeks and was booed during their recent 4-0 loss to Milan at the Stadio Maradona.
Speaking to Il Mattino, De Laurentiis explained how he rejected a big money offer for the club and launched a broadside at Sky broadcasting and their coverage of football:
“I don’t even care how much my Napoli is worth, it’s the family toy anyway and I don’t think about selling it at all. Also because I wouldn’t know what to do next….
“What do I do, buy myself a club in the Premier League? But I’m of Neapolitan origin, I’m happy with Napoli and I don’t have to be ‘annoyed’ with these offers. An Arab fund offered me €2.5 billion last year but I said no. And I also say no to funds that want to rebuild my stadium. I’ll rebuild the stadium on my own if the city council sells it to me for one euro, as is logical and if the Court of Auditors and various superintendencies don’t put up obstacles as they always do in this country that is in a quandary.”
“Sky broadcasting? I was saying to my colleagues, why do we have to go to Sky, because what do they understand there, they are born with cinema and not with football. They’re young, they’re closing in Germany and they’re closing in Italy, our CEO says why don’t we buy it for a billion? Because they do different things.
We are the most beautiful but most rigid country in the world. And also the most violent one with mafia, ‘ndrangheta and camorra. This does not help. When we say we have to redo the stadiums, we have to do them for whom? If we have to remake them to have them destroyed, it is useless. If we don’t put a stop to it.”
