Diego Della Valle and the Potential Sale of Fiorentina

The big news of the day is that Diego Della Valle is willing to listen to “concrete offers” for the sale of Fiorentina. Some people may be very excited about this news because it could bring a new owner that may be willing to spend the money that Fiorentina fans would like to see. There also are others that like Della Valle and what he brought to football in Italy. Just remember he was the man that brought football back to Florence. Although we may not all agree with the moves he and his brother make they are the reason we get to watch la Viola every weekend.

Let’s take a trip back to 2001, for those of you that do not remember or just have no idea of the clubs history. The club known as ACF Fiorentina fell into some significant financial troubles and had trouble paying the wages of some of their players. The team was also relegated to Serie B after that season, but did not get to play a game because owner Vittorio Cecchi Gori was bankrupt. Essentially the government foreclosed on the team and it no longer existed.

That brings us to the hero that brought football back to Florence. This is the same man that many fans are currently frustrated with. The same man that fans want to sell the team. Well to continue the little history lesson, Italian businessman Diego Della Valle created a new team named Associazione Calcio Fiorentina e Florentia Viola. That is a bit of a mouth full, but there was a reason behind this name. Simply they could not call themselves Associazione Calcio Fiorentina because that team no longer existed. This was a tough time for football in Florence because the team was in the fourth division and had to work its way back up the latter.

It actually did not take long for Fiorentina to regain its name and get back to the top division. They struggled to stay up top for a little, but have grown into a team that sits on the upper half of the table year in and year out. The problem is the team just is not winning the title and is not excelling in European football. They also seem to be alright with getting rid of top tier young players without replacing them (please just keep Bernardeschi). Needless to say fans seem to be frustrated. Ownership is hearing their voices though and is willing to listen to offers for the team. Be careful what you wish for though.

Through and through Diego Della Valle and his family have their hearts in this team. They saw it important to keep football in Florence and build something to honestly be pretty proud of. The fact that they were back in the Serie A in 4 seasons is amazing. Della Valle has attracted good players and seems to be interested in selling the team to someone from Florence that is going to take care of the team.

A new owner can go one of two ways. The new owner or ownership group can create a full new atmosphere in Florence. That means they can either want to spend a lot of money and turn Fiorentina into another super power in Italy like Juventus. The other option is the team will regress because the new ownership does not want to spend money. Hopefully it is the first option.

The team may be getting sold eventually, but for now Fiorentina is still owned by the Della Valle brothers. They just announced the plans to build a new stadium. When you want to do that it really does not make sense to sell the team. There is also the issue of having a new coach and making decisions towards next season. If a new owner comes in, it is likely that he or she will want their own guys running the show. If the team gets sold there will likely be some more turnover. All in all if Della Valle plans on selling the team he should just leave the team the way it is and let the new regime come in and make decisions. It would be painful to see Bernardeschi get sold to Juventus if the new ownership wanted him to stay in Florence. For now we can only just wait and see what happens.