LIVORNO. They defined him as “the best and worst president in the history of Livorno Calcio”. How is it possible? The best because in his 21 years at the helm of the Amaranth club (from 1999 to 2019), he brought the team back to Serie B after 30 years and to Serie A after 55 years, even entering the UEFA Cup in 2006. The worst because despite his enormous financial resources, he brought Livorno back to Serie C before accompanying them to the abyss with a pseudo-sale to disturbing characters and bankruptcy.
Two lives
It would take half a library to tell Aldo Spinelli, arrested for corruption as part of an investigation in Genoa, and Livorno. He, a football lover to the core, former patron of Genoa but always in the front row also to see Monaco in Monte Carlo, was one of the last patrons (a la Moratti and Berlusconi so to speak) of the world of football. “What turns do two lives” by Mengoni could be the perfect soundtrack. Spinelli lived two lives in Livorno. That of crazy enthusiasm and that of disaffection. A lack of love without continuity, because sometimes he returned to the front line and even seemed to warm up again. But in the last years of his management there really were some small flashes in the pan.
He faced the adventure in Livorno with peaks of enthusiasm and devastating downs. From crying with joy, to saying within a few days “enough, I’m tired, I’m leaving”. From diving onto the green lawn after a home victory wearing a shirt in honor of the banned players, to welcoming the ultras and telling them “if you don’t like my team, go to the cinema on Sunday”. The story then ended badly. Very heavy protest and fans who even went to Genoa to put banners outside his house and in the port: “via Spinelli from Livorno”.
His son Roberto
For a football president, in the long run it is inevitable to end up in the centrifuge of criticism. Especially after so many years at the helm. Especially if you get used to lobster and then propose canned tuna again. The closeness of his son Roberto, someone who has never had any connection with the city of Livorno, probably also had an influence on this. And many think it was exactly that Roberto Spinelli to push his father towards abandoning Livorno. It was clear that in recent years there was pressure to leave from within the family and Aldo Spinelli himself admitted this.
The background
Passionate, colourful, old-time president. When you pointed out to him that the team was perhaps not competitive enough, he always replied: «But why not? Look, it was a bloodbath to build it.” He was the nightmare of the sporting directors of other clubs, because in 99% of cases he always emerged victorious. His sudden arrivals at training were famous at the camp. Once, after a series of defeats for Livorno, he accused the players of training little and of being overweight: so on Monday he showed up at the Coni Center with his driver and a scale in hand to weigh them. And he put two out of the team. He brought Protti and Lucarelli to Livorno and it was a great merit (even if the two players gave up a lot of money), but then he hated it when the spotlight fell on others and not on him.
With him the team participated in the UEFA Cup, achieving a result that will almost certainly be unparalleled in the history of Livorno, yet on the eve of the decisive match in Auxerre (then won 1-0 with a goal from Lucarelli), while the city was going crazy with anticipation, he declared at the press conference: «We hope to get out because otherwise too much energy will be wasted». In 21 years he made people happy, he made people angry, first he united and then he divided. In any case, 21 indelible years.
