Rino Foschiformer sporting director of Genoa and Palermo among others, spoke at Sicily In The Box:
Director, let’s start with how much Dionisi’s team convinces you or not.
“It’s still too early to say. They’re a good team, capable of having a good championship, but so far they’re tackling it with alternating currents. They’ve already had some problems and are probably waiting for the winter transfer market to improve.
Would City Group’s style of not exposing itself make me feel like a caged lion?
Yes, and I tell you that under those conditions I would not have stayed. With Zamparini it was different: he had come to Palermo from Venice to play football with passion and with the desire to do it in the most correct way possible. We obtained the results by working with this philosophy.
Instead, the City Group, which owns 11-12 clubs, also manages Palermo, the fifth largest city in Italy. I don’t feel the same passion. I am passionate and I was also in Zamparini’s time. I could never work with the City Group, not because I don’t respect them – indeed, I envy them because they have Palermo in their hands – but because I believe that in a place like Palermo a particular passion is needed. This, however, seems like just business to me. And I’ll stop here.”
If you were director of Palermo today, what market would you make in January?
“Palermo is a good team, this is evident. But there are things to complete, especially in defence. I don’t want to be a professor, but I love Palermo and I believe that they also want to go to Serie A. Palermo is not a city anyone who can settle for Serie B.
In January I would do everything to fix the shortcomings. There is also the problem of some players being paid a lot who are not performing as they should, while others, like Brunori, end up on the bench when they deserve more space. If you have Palermo in your hands, you have to do everything possible to bring them to Serie A. The City Group has the means and must exploit them.”
Why doesn’t the club admit that the objective is direct Serie A and they only talk about improving previous placings?
“I think they want to keep their feet on the ground. I expect that their intent will still be to do their best. I remember the first year with Palermo: we changed manager after a few games, we hired Guidolin, and in January we openly declared that we wanted to go to Serie A. We succeeded, after 34 years of waiting.
Today times have changed. What should they say? Having said that, I don’t like – and I’m not just referring to Palermo – this tendency to leave Italian clubs in the hands of foreign models. I am critical of this approach. Football has become business, but Palermo is the fifth largest city in Italy and cannot be joked about. I repeat: foreign groups do not convey the passion necessary to do the best.”
Why is Rino Foschi still at home?
“This is a deep wound for me, but I want to answer clearly. Zamparini, in his last year, called me because he had some problems and I agreed to come back to give my best. During the 2018/2019 season we had a good championship , always in the playoff zone, and we had conquered them on the field. Then I learned that someone was plotting to prevent us from participating in the playoffs, using an old issue linked to Zamparini. At the end of that season we were in order with everything, we had paid for everything Then new ownership arrived, and I was fired. I said what I thought, someone got offended, and now I have three trials underway. I’m proud to have fought against everything and everyone for the period in which I was president, despite being in compliance with everything. Yet, they denied us the playoffs. I fought with very few spectators: with 10,000 paying people I would have gone to Serie A without making the playoffs, but we often played in front of 1,500. 2,000 spectators.
What they did to me is very serious. I’m still at home because I told the truth and for this reason I have ongoing trials. It’s an open wound. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say this. That year everything was in order and there was a lot of passion.
I am proud to have won 7 championships in my career, always working seriously and regularly. I accepted the role of president only because Zamparini asked me to, but that role was used to eliminate me. Maybe they didn’t even expect me to make the playoffs. Only over time did someone have the courage to say: ‘Maybe it was unfair to deny Palermo the playoffs’.”