The Mauro Zappi chapter has closed at Virtus Imola. The Imola coach will no longer be the coach of the yellow and black team in the 2024/2025 tournament.
Zappi had replaced Marco Regazzi at the end of November, his record is 11 victories in 23 games and a salvation achieved with five matchdays to spare. On Friday the club officially communicated that the chapter is closed: “Honestly, I am very disappointed – comments Zappi –. I feel disappointed because we already had an agreement for next season. After the victory in Ravenna, on 12 March we found ourselves at the table with the President Fiumi, the general director Torreggiani and the sporting director Carlo Marchi, we shook hands and informed my agent that everything was already done and decided. I feel disappointment towards these people who have gone back on their word.”
Virtus Imola was in the running to participate in the playoffs, the last five defeats have made the great opportunity to play the post season which would have been the icing on the cake disappear.
“It’s absolutely true, this is what the results say, that we didn’t finish the year in a positive way. But we need to have balance, this was a team built in the summer with the clear objective of saving itself if possible without going through the play-outs. There had been said that if we had reached thirteenth place it would have been like winning the championship. It was a tough start to the year, it’s not for me to comment on it. When I was chosen to lead the group the same thing was reiterated. It wasn’t easy to take over and turn the year around, we succeeded by bringing the fans and the people of Imola closer together.”
Those five final defeats are a burden that changed the destiny of Zappi, and probably also of many Virtys Imola players.
“We need to be self-critical about the final defeats, but in the face of an agreement already made there was little balance in evaluating the entire year and the judgment was invalidated by the ambition of a never declared change of objective. This team was able to beat battleships despite the group being decimated by injuries, in Ruvo we lost at the last minute. The match with Roseto was distorted by a refereeing error seen by all of Italy, Virtus won in Faenza, beat Fabriano, scored 104 points in Ravenna. and dominated the first leg of the derby against Andrea Costa. Results that say a lot about how much we were able to put on the field.”
A bittersweet conclusion for Zappi: “The love for Virtus remains, I played and trained there, when the news of the non-renewal began to circulate I received many expressions of affection. The disappointment is strong for certain attitudes, beyond the “Balance requires respect for people. It’s been a wonderful five months after accepting a challenge that was easier to decline. Now good luck to the club and the entire environment.”
