TMW Radio
During today’s live broadcast of To All Cregistered transmission TMW Radio and dedicated to the world of Serie C, intervened the vice-president of Lecco Francesco Alibertiwho on the occasion of the last championship match showed up at the stadium in an unusual way, with a horror make-up that recalled the famous clown It, born from the mind of Stephen King: “It was a make-up that I had done by gods friends of mine who work in the cinema, almost two hours of work, and I wanted to make a good impression in the Halloween night that we had organized at the ‘Rigamonti-Ceppi’ and which fortunately culminated in the victory since we took over the club in the summer we tried to reunite the fans, I am happy and proud to be able to say that, for Serie C, we set the club’s absolute record for season ticket holders, surpassing those subscribed last season in Serie B: we have always been be careful to organize events and things for the fans, this is the basis of every football project. And the response has been positive so far.”
Indeed, we always think of football as just the pitch, but there is much more. Union with the territory is indeed fundamental, otherwise it will be difficult.
“I agree. And also our new coach, Volpe, immediately told us that he couldn’t wait to come to Lecco for the beautiful curve we have, which is not exactly a common thing for Group A: we have one small and narrow stadium, but which rumbles like a mini ‘Bombonera’, full of fear. And Baldini also told us this. It should be underlined that, statistics in hand, our home performance is almost perfect, we suffer more away games: having the fans on our side, giving them new trust after the terrible relegation, was a very important thing for us
It wasn’t easy to leave again. Because in addition to the disconnect with the territory you also had to deal with the after-effects of the aforementioned relegation.
“As an objective we have declared that we want to have excellent playoffs, we are satisfied with the current ranking but we hope to be able to do even better: it is true, however, that there are teams that suffer a lot from relegation, and I believe that from this perspective it was fundamental to be started almost from 0 with a new technical project. And in this our Sports Director Minadeo gave us a great hand, who laid the foundations of the new Lecco: numerous evaluations were made on the squad under contract, those who were the new signings, loans, young bets. We wanted to rebuild the team from the foundations, while keeping almost all the veterans, like Celjak, Battistini, Lepore, Ionita: with their experience they can guide the younger ones towards results.”
He mentioned Mister Volpe and DS Minadeo: young profiles. And it doesn’t seem to be a random choice to have modernized the environment.
“Minadeo was one of the three profiles explored this summer, and the other two were also young and very advanced with excellent results in C under their belts, but Antonio overwhelmed us with his positive energy: we put together a technical project, and called Mr. Baldini, after having had several interviews, it was nice to see that many profiles proposed themselves, we saw that the place was attractive, and probably we as owners presented ourselves well to football. Then came the dismissal. certainly not lightly, and here we called back Volpe, with whom we had been in contact since the summer: he is a young profile, with very clear ideas about football, a bit revolutionary and atypical for what Serie C is. We hope it is the right choice, but we are convinced of it.”
Returning to the choice of Volpe: why wasn’t he chosen in the summer, and this solution was only arrived at later?
“Volpe was very close in the summer, but we then made a somewhat entrepreneurial choice: among the various young profiles, we chose Baldini because he had some experience in the category, we didn’t want to risk too much with a young profile. Betting like that from nothing , after taking over the club and renovating a lot from the point of view of people and structures, it was perhaps too risky, so we opted for a more security profile: it didn’t go as we hoped, even if we are talking about a team that the coach has left in eleventh place, but the team has higher values than eleventh place. Volpe could have given a positive shock, and he gave it immediately against Alcione: we’ll see what the pitch says in the end.”
Your family is experiencing football for the first time: why did you choose to take this path, even on a personal level?
“We had to take over from Di Nunno with an American team, which had already emerged since the last championship, but the Americans, for reasons we never understood, withdrew from the negotiations. We were left alone, other partners came forward both Italians and foreigners, but when it was time to present the guarantee for registration, no one materialised: so my father deposited everything, then taking over the entire shareholding of the club. We wanted to save a company that we followed and appreciated. I am passionate about football and, although I also work in family businesses, I wanted to try this experience, where my uncle Michele, my father’s brother, is also involved.”