Di Benedetto takeover complete: What is the future for Roma?

Last Friday evening, Thomas Di Benedetto entered the world of Italian football. He signed a preliminary agreement to takeover AS Roma, and in June will become the first overseas president in their history, and the first of the traditional big clubs in Italy to be owned by a foreign individual.

For the club, there is only relief that this takeover, which has been in the pipeline for months now, is finally complete. Indeed, the club have been actively seeking a buyer since the summer of 2010 as the club came to terms with the huge debts weighing heavy on the club’s finances.

That deficit, which stood at around €325m, was thanks primarily to Italpetroli, the holding company which controlled the club. The Sensi family owned Italpetroli, and thus owned Roma (in much the same way as Silvio Berlusconi owns Milan through his holding company Fininvest). Fortunately Rosella Sensi – who became Roma’s president when her father Franco died in August 2008 – was able to reach an agreement last summer with Italian-based bank UniCredit, one of the club’s creditors, to clear that debt.

To do so, a new company (Newco Roma) was formed, of which 51% was owned by Sensi and 49% by UniCredit. Together they acquired 67% of shares in Roma, and wiped the deficit. But it was not a long-term solution, and as part of the agreement a new buyer had to be sought.

Di Benedetto’s offer was the one deemed most suitable, and he agreed to purchase the club at the end of March, but the official signing of the papers did not take place until last Friday. His consortium, AS Roma LLC, and UniCredit will form another joint company and take over the 67.097% share previously controlled by Newco Roma. Di Benedetto’s consortium will own 60% of the new company, while UniCredit will own 40%.

The price Di Benedetto has had to pay is a relatively small €70.3m. Of that sum, €60.3m was spent on the club itself. €6m was used to buy ASR Real Estate, which now means he also has the Trigoria training complex under his ownership, and €4m went on the Brand Management Ltd., the marketing arm of Roma. He has also entered into a finance agreement with UniCredit for €30m over five years, some of which is apparently heading for this summer’s transfer campaign (though there is no official word on this).

As is now customary when an individual takes over a football club, Di Benedetto and his associates have all talked up their ambitions. James Palotta, one of the members of the consortium, has already spoken of the intention to “build a team capable of winning the championship” – tough to set the bar any higher than that.

No Roman

Yet what is clear is that Di Benedetto is not a Roman Abramovich type character – he does not have the finances to throw around in the summer – the €30m loan from UniCredit is enough to give that particular game away – which is perhaps why he was so quickly inclined to use the Financial Fair Play buzzword, stating a focus on bringing through youth and encouraging young players to sign. Of course, he has to talk about Financial Fair Play, as it looms large over every club, but it appears as if it is serving a dual purpose for the American.

Something else both Di Benedetto and Palotta have been keen to verbalise is their Italian heritage (they are American-Italians), perhaps suggesting they are fully aware of the view held in Italy towards anything foreign. Di Benedetto has spoken of his Roman grandparent (not a bad attempt to get his Roman public onside), whilst Palotta thought it necessary to recall words his father said to him: “My dad always told me: ‘remember Jim, you are an Italian first.’”

Whether the fans have bought into it, nobody quite knows at the moment, but fellow club presidents are not convinced. Palermo’s Maurizio Zamparini and Lazio’s Claudio Lotito have not been shy in expressing their reservations about the Americans, as Serafino Ingardia points out in this article for Football Italia. Indeed, even Zamparini questions the finances available to the new gentlemen in town.

Despite all this, one of the first problems to face Di Benedetto and company will not come from outside of his club, but from within. Paolo Fiorentino, CEO of UniCredit, was eager to highlight that important decisions will be taken by a majority of board members of both AS Roma LLC and his own company. It is an interesting conflict, given that one is a partner of a group that own successful sports teams, and the other is a bank whose sole aim is to make money.

No wonder the sceptics are out in force.

(photo credit: Dongga BS on Flickr)

AS Roma, Football and Finance, Italian Serie A, Italy