Fiorentina president Rocco Commisso aimed another dig at long-standing rivals Juventus: ‘Chiesa and Vlahovic didn’t go to Juve for the shirt, only for the money’. The American billionaire was speaking at the University of Economics in Florence and touched on a number of subjects, explaining why he wasn’t able to build a new stadium for La Viola yet and why it’s so hard to compete in the transfer market when teams are ready to offer large salaries:
“When I was 12 years old, I was already thinking about being an entrepreneur. In America I learned that without work you don’t go anywhere. There I started working in a diner.”
“How to run a business? You have to get people who understand. Even in Fiorentina. To say, I could play football, but only because the Americans were not good (laughs, ed.). I like to bond with people as if they were family. People who are experts in their fields, whether at Mediacom or Fiorentina. I have never fired anyone. Only a few cases, including the coach, but in football these things happen.”
“Mediacom is easier to manage than Fiorentina. Football is much more complicated from my point of view, you need results. If you don’t win these games, then they want me to leave.”
“A new Stadium? In America I never met a mayor, here, nothing gets done without them. I wanted to do the stadium, four years ago with Casamonti. If they let me do it, now Florence would almost have a new stadium. In four years I spent €420 million. They get angry here, but it’s been since the Medici that this money had not been spent by a private person. I’ve learned to calm down.”
“Salvini and Renzi? In America, public money is often used for stadiums. We have, in Italy, the oldest stadiums in Europe. We have seen beautiful stadiums outside of Italy. The stadium for me, it is not a monument. It never happens here, but in America there are people who change their own country because they don’t let them build the stadium. As in, “If you don’t let me make the stadium for Fiorentina, I’m going to Switzerland.” This custom does not exist in Italy.”
“Revenues? I have to pay 850 people and more, considering the football academies. I have a great responsibility. Fiorentina’s number one problem is that there is no revenue. Both Milan and Inter want to reduce costs, even though they have more revenues than Fiorentina. I cannot spend €40 million every year for the losses we have. Fiorentina will never have financial problems.
“Transfer market? With these teams in England everything is more complicated. They do what Juventus did, they paid players more than they were worth. And we lost players like Chiesa, Vlahovic and Bernardeschi. But they don’t go to Turin for the shirt, they go for the money. English teams? The Chelsea ones spent millions to be 12th. I at least didn’t spend anything (laughs ed.). In the Premier League they did an incredible thing. This year we are doing well in Europe. We hope to win and move on.”
