Financial problems have afflicted many Serie A teams in recent years. But nothing is more tragic than what happened with AC Parma – now Parma Calcio -, which had transformed into one of the clubs with a series of achievements. Despite ending the 2013/2014 season in sixth position, Parma had to miss the right to appear in European competitions in the 2014/2015 season. The decision was obtained by Parma after Il Gialloblu proved not to pay taxes and did not pay the salaries of several players and staff.
In fact, apart from having his rights revoked (given to Torino who finished under Parma), Parma, who was trained by Roberto Donadoni, was sentenced to a fine of 5,000 euros. Plus, they also have to start the season with minus one point.
After accepting these punishments, Parma’s problem was not completely resolved. Even after the club’s leadership stick shifted from Tommaso Ghirardi to Ermir Kodra, Parma’s fate is still on the line. Parma was finally declared bankrupt in 2015 after changing ownership again and being kicked out to Serie D as punishment.
Since the first time he set foot in Serie A in 1990/1991, Parma has emerged with terrible strength. Under the tutelage of the legendary Italian coach, Nevio Scala, Parma won a number of trophies in the following years.
Starting from winning the Coppa Italia in 1991/1992, to winning the UEFA Cup, European Super Cup and Winners’ Cup in the period 1992 to 1995. In Serie A, they were runners-up in the 1996/1997 season, only losing 2 points from the champions. , Juventus.
At that time, it was not surprising that Parma was transformed into one of the new strengths of Serie A. How could not, at that time Il Gialloblu was strengthened by names such as Hernan Crespo, Fabio Cannavaro, Dino Baggio, Fernando Couto, Enrico Chiesa, Lilian Thuram, Juan Sebastian Veron, Gianfranco Zola, and Hristo Stoichkov.
If there was no Parmalat, Parma would not have been able to recruit these players. Yes, the emergence of the Parma phenomenon in the early 1990s was inseparable from orbiting the milk-producing company.
Leading Parmalat since 1961 when he was 22 years old, Calisto Tanzi succeeded in making Parmalat control 50% of the Italian food market in the 1980s and 1990s. At that time Parmalat was known by the world market. The company employs more than 36 thousand employees.
In 1991 he decided to buy a local football club, Parma, which had just been left behind by president Ernesto Ceresini, who died suddenly. Tanzi bought 98% of Parma’s shares as proof of his passion for Italian football. Even so, Giorgio Pedraneschi, Ceresini’s son, still leads Parma because he owns 2% of shares.
At that time Parma was still a small club without achievements. Even though they have been around since 1913, Parma has never even appeared in Serie A, Italy’s highest competition. Parma spent his past competing in Serie C and Serie B.
It was with a lira from Tanzi that Nevio Scala, the coach who led Parma to promotion to Serie A, was free enough to bring star players into his squad. The youth academy was further refined so that Parma could produce players like Gianluigi Buffon and Giuseppe Rossi.
Parma also writhed with trophy after trophy he won. In a short period of time, 10 years since promotion, Parma won 3 Coppa Italia, 1 Serie A, 1 Super Coppa, 2 UEFA Cups, 1 European Super Cup and 1 Cup Winners’ Cup; 9 trophies in 10 years.
For this achievement, Italy also has seven clubs that each year compete for the Scudetto, the Serie A championship trophy. Together with AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, AS Roma, Lazio and Fiorentina, Parma has made Serie A recognize the term Sette Sorele or Seven Sisters.
However, in 2000, Parmagiani’s favorite Hernan Crespo, as Parma’s supporters are known, was sold to Lazio for a fee of £ 35.5 million. The following year, Parma’s best academy graduate, Gianluigi Buffon, moved to Juventus for a fee of 32.6 million pounds, becoming the world’s most expensive goalkeeper. And in the summer of 2003, Lilian Thuram followed in Buffon’s footsteps by joining Juventus for a fee of £ 41.5 million. 2003 was the first year Parma finished outside of the sixth place since first promotion to Serie A. And in that year gray clouds began to cover the ceiling of Parma’s glory.
Parmalat Bankruptcy, Parma Setback
In December 2003, it was revealed that Parmalat was having difficulty paying off a tax debt of 150 million euros. This has puzzled many parties because many experts believe that Parmalat has a pile of money worth 3.9 billion euros in the Bank of America account.
Initially the company said that Parmalat had no serious problems. They try to convince everyone by saying the debt will pay off in the near future. But shortly thereafter, still in December, the company said that 3.9 billion euros never existed.
In fact, the transfers to and from the accounts on the Parmalat account at Bank of America were all fake. So far, Calisto Tanzi along with a number of family and company executives have committed fraud and embezzlement of money using this fake account. To make it smooth, they collaborated with Luca Sala, Head of Bank Of America Finance Company in Italy.
Further investigated, in fact the fraud that was carried out by Tanzi was one of the biggest frauds with fake accounts in Europe. Because in fact, Parmalat’s debt owed to Bank of America was 14.3 billion euros, nearly four times the amount originally disclosed.
US creditors quickly launched a $ 10 billion class action lawsuit. In December 2004, the Italian government had to step in and to speed up the completion of the case with emergency laws regarding the process of protecting wages, vendors and industrial activities.
Alessandro Bassi, an aide to Fausto Tonna, committed suicide because he was found guilty in this case. Fausto Tonna himself was Parmalat’s finance director for 16 years, who is also known as Tanzi’s right hand man. In 2008, Tonna was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.
The problem that happened to Parmalat certainly had a big effect on Parma, which is 98% owned by Parmalat. In 2003 Parma announced an operating loss of 77 million euros. They also began looking for new sponsors to cover this debt and remain in Serie A.
But no one was interested in the team from the provincial city of Parma. The Barilla family, who have fresh funds which are the main target of management, are not interested in taking over the club. Other buyers never arrived. The club was declared to be bankrupt soon.
Fortunately, Parma managed to find a gap so that they could continue to compete in Serie A. Apart from Parmalat, the club changed their name from AC Parma to FC Parma. This change is intended so that television revenue from the league can flow to the club. Parma can still breathe in Serie A.
In the midst of a chaotic club situation, the players themselves remained professional and focused on the pitch. In the 2004/2005 season, the first season without Parmalat, under the cold hands of coach Silvio Baldini, Parma managed to advance to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup.
At the same time they have to limp in Serie A. At the end of the season Parma and Bologna have the same points at the bottom of the table so they both have to play in the play-offs to determine who will be relegated from Serie A.
Parma is quite a dilemma in facing this situation. They have to choose between focusing on surviving relegation or chasing the trophy in the UEFA Cup. In the end, Baldini chose to focus on his team to survive in Serie A. The match against CSKA Moscow was released by only fielding a substitute player in the second leg, the first leg 0-0. Parma was overthrown with a score of 3-0 in the second leg.
Initially Baldini’s plan went wrong. The defeat in the UEFA Cup was followed by Parma’s defeat to Bologna in the first leg of the relegation play-off by 1-0. Fortunately in the second leg, Alberto Gilardino and Sebastian Frey played brilliantly. Parma won in the second leg by a score of 2-0 despite playing at home to Bologna.
Parma’s success in surviving in Serie A at that time only delayed them from going down to Serie B. Because two seasons ago, the 2007/2008 season, Parma really had to be relegated because they were only able to finish in 19th. Parma returned to Serie B after 18 years in Serie A.
Parma managed to return to Serie A after only one season in Serie B. Together with the new owner who bought Parma in early 2007, Tommaso Ghirardi, Parma won Serie B and returned to Serie A. an, they seemed to be a complementary team.
Parma has ups and downs every season. Sometimes it can stay in the middle of the board, on other occasions it stumbles almost relegated. Finishing sixth in the 2013/2014 season is his best achievement since the Parmalat case.
However, Parma was again hit by a financial crisis. Ghirardi and the club’s CEO, Pietro Leonardi, were sentenced to 5 thousand euros because they were unable to pay off the tax debt and the salaries of the players and their staff. They were also banned from being active in football for two months. The peak is of course the shift in leadership which still doesn’t help the team so that Parma eventually went bankrupt and had to start a career from Serie D.
The man who raised Parma’s name, Calisto Tanzi, is now 78 years old and has spent his time behind locked up bars, serving 17 years in prison. Although many people resented him for what he did, for some Parma supporters he was still a hero. Yes, thanks to the company owned by Tanzi, Parmalat, Parma (had) known as one of the great clubs in Italy. Many people today only know Parma as a sweet memory from the past. But imagine, what kind of memories crossed Tanzi’s head behind the prison bars.
ASL
