Parma, a club that once had Buffon, Thuram, Cannavaro, Veron and Crespo in its ranks has been sold for just €1 for the second time in two months.
The crisis-hit Serie A club announced in a statement published on their official sitethat Italian businessman Giampietro Manenti has taken control of the club for the nominal sum — the same amount for which a Russian-Cypriot conglomerate purchased the club from previous major shareholder Tommaso Ghirardi in December.
The Serie A club were bought by Albanian oil tycoon Rezart Taci in December, with the relatively unknown 29-year-old Ermir Kodra being installed as president.
Only weeks after Taci took over the reins from Tommaso Ghirardi he announced that the club was again on the market, with Kodra confirming that they were speaking with Italo-Slovenian investors regarding a takeover after discovering the entirety of the Ducali’s troubling circumstances.
“We sold the club for €1, which is what we paid for it too,” Pietro Doca, an associate of Taci, told ANSA. “The problem is the debts.”
After little more than two weeks as president, Ermir Kodra has stepped down and Manenti will now take over the club’s presidency in what is a difficult time for the Emilia-Romagna club.
The players and staff at the Stadio Ennio Tardini have not been paid any wages since July and both Antonio Cassano and Felipe have had their contracts rescinded at the players’ request.
The remaining members of the squad have set their employers a deadline of Feb. 15 to pay the outstanding wages or else they will take further action. Manenti, who has taken over the club’s debts, says ensuring the club’s employees are accommodated is now his priority.
“We’re going to pay everything,” Manenti told Mediaset television. “It’s been a turbulent time for the players, but I’ve come away satisfied with my meeting [with them]. They were not asking for their wages, they were asking for the situation to be saved.
Parma currently sit at the foot of Serie A with just nine points having already been docked one point for failing to pay the players’ wages earlier this season.
