© EuroFootball.com
A few days ago, Italian football was hit by a loss - the legendary, 78-year-old Napoli football club from the city of Naples, which has won prestigious tournaments in the past, has gone bankrupt.
Evicted
Just a week ago, the double Italian champions were simply evicted from the Serie B league because they failed to provide financial stability guarantees for the next season. However, Napoli's club may not disappear from the Italian and world football map. In Italy, there is the so-called "Lodo Petrucci" rule, according to which a new club can take the place of this club in the C1 league. Several businessmen have already submitted their applications to establish a new club. Perhaps this is salvation for this club, but certainly a sad ending. Especially for a club that dominated all of Italy and even Europe in the 9th century and at the beginning of the 10th century.
Golden days
In the 1986/87 season, there was no equal to Napoli in Italy - the team won the Scudetto. The same was repeated a few years later - in the 1989/90 season, and the UEFA Cup was won in 1989. The team included one of the best Argentine and world players Diego Maradona, supported by Careca, Bruno Giordano and Salvatore Bagni, who probably had the most passionate fans all over Italy.
Naples christened Dino Zoff
The Napoli football school, you could say, christened the career of the best Italian footballer of all time, Dino Zoff. Although he started playing earlier, his real career began in 1967 - that's when Dino Zoff joined Napoli club. "Neapolis and I were two extremes that 'came together'. We immediately fell in love with each other," recalls Dino Zoff, remembering his life in the stormy Naples.
Financial problems
Ironically, Napoli club began to sink and go bankrupt at the same time when Maradona began to fight serious health problems in Argentina. However, the club had financial problems even before - a few years after the golden days with Diego Maradona.
Five out of the last six seasons the club spent in the Serie B league. Only in the 1999/00 season did the club win the right to play in the country's elite league. However, just to be relegated the following year due to one single point. Recently, the situation at the Stadio San Paolo deteriorated even further, as a sharp and bitter fight began between the team's president Salvatore Naldi and former owner Giorgio Corbelli. Neither of them could decide who owned the majority of the club's shares and therefore who was responsible for the club's finances and finding the money needed to keep the club alive.
Enormous Debt
According to the Naples city court, which marked the club's death, Napoli's club debts ranged from 62 to 64 million euros (from 214 to 221 million litas). The meager income the club received in a few days after the court's decision will barely be enough to pay the phone bills. Last month, 40 thousand club fans, trying to avoid the club's exclusion from the league and bankruptcy, held special matches to raise money and help the Napoli team, but it was not enough.
The president hopes
"I personally am very disappointed. It's a really bad day for Italian football," said Italian Football Federation President Franco Carraro. "No matter where Napoli club starts, those 40 thousand fans will surely be disappointed. But football teaches us that today we can cry, tomorrow we can smile, and the day after tomorrow we can laugh. I hope Napoli will find leaders and coaches who will revive the team to the level it deserves."
"Fiorentina" number 2?
Well, maybe we'll have the second "Fiorentina" in Italian football? In the past, the very famous "Fiorentina" club also went bankrupt a few years ago. The club used the "Lodo Petrucci rule" and started competing in the C1 league. The new team president, Diego Della Valle, was really patient and clever - the next season "Fiorentina" was back in the elite league. There is no doubt that those 40 thousand fans and even more would certainly not be against a similar turn of events.
