by Players from Sampdoria were not overpaid
The 2022/23 season has been a difficult one for Sampdoria fans, who currently sit just one place behind bottom of Serie A with just 11 points from 22 games.
But despite their beloved team notching up just two wins all season and mourning the death of their former star Gianluca Vialli, it seems there could be more bad news en route to Blucerchiati supporters.
According to this report by La Gazzetta dello SportSampdoria has failed to pay its players and staff for the final quarter of 2022, with a total of €11 million ($11.76 million) in salaries still outstanding.
Failure to pay that money this month would result in a points deduction, with further reports in Italian media believing the players could agree to waive the amounts owed to them to avoid being punished by the club.
However, that would only be a temporary solution, with that said story over La Gazzetta dello Sport He insists Samp needs a capital injection of around €35m-50m ($37-54m) to keep the club afloat until the end of the season.
Sampdoria owner Massimo Ferrero has come under fire.
Fans certainly haven’t held back in their hatred of club owner Massimo Ferrero, who has revealed himself The press that “four bullets in three years” had been mailed to him as threats against him.
He has controlled the club since 2014 but has been trying to sell Sampdoria for the past three years after being arrested for fraudulently bankrupting his other businesses.
However, Edoardo Garrone – who owned the club between 2002 and 2011 – believes Ferrero is making matters worse by refusing to negotiate with potential buyers who want to save Sampdoria.
Those offers included one from a consortium led by Vialli, but as Garrone wrote in an open letter last month, Ferrero and his family simply dismissed any approach.
“Since 2019, Sampdoria has been in a state of crisis due to the general situation in which President Massimo Ferrero and his companies found themselves,” he said.
“It was therefore normal for me, mainly because of our mutual respect, to step up and get involved when Gianluca Vialli asked me in 2009 to help him buy Sampdoria, assist him in the negotiations and agree to join the investment.
“You will all remember Ferrero’s consistent superiority that led Vialli to finally withdraw the offers after nearly a year of attempts.”
After Vialli’s offer fell through, American investment firm Merlyn Partners and Alessandro Barnaba approached him, and Ferrero’s response drew even more wrath from Garrone.
“Your proposal involves a very serious industrial plan to rescue and revitalize the team,” he continued in the open letter. “As we all know, this scenario did not happen.
“The proposal of Barnaba and Merlyn Partners has not been taken into account by the owners, who obviously have other objectives than saving the club, nor by the board, which, by rejecting it, has doomed the last, only and best solution that could Sampdoria one guarantee a positive future.”
That positive future seems further than ever as the club are 10 points from safety before potential deductions.
