“We ask our mayor to act as guarantor to save the Lega Pro. No one must be welcomed into the Municipality unless they demonstrate real interest in safeguarding participation in the professional championship”. The appeal comes from the ultras of the Curva Sud, on the day in which Calcio Foggia 1920 turns 104.
As has happened in the past, the registration nightmare returns. “This season the sporting results were not what we hoped for – observes the organized fans -. Following the defeat against Turris, Foggia risked relegation. We decided to continue to support our team, collecting criticism and attacks of all kinds, but our goal of saving the category saw us united and determined to get to the end.”
Hence the request to the mayor of Foggia, Maria Aida Episcopo.
“We are certain that no one will have the courage to state publicly that the ‘death’ of Calcio Foggia is more ‘convenient’ and studied in advance – they write from the Curva Sud -, but we will equally understand that those who have not considered making an offer will have made a choice, that of starting again from the amateurs; a choice that we do not deserve, we do not agree with and we would not support. We always delude ourselves that there may be local entrepreneurs who love these colors passionately without too many ifs and buts. In recent years, there have been several moments where this passion could be demonstrated.”
Thus, they retrace the latest events starting from 2019: the relegation from Serie B “It could have been an opportunity, but they were all unjustified absent. The restart from the D was another possibility to start all together again, but the local entrepreneurship was again absent. In the first year of Lega Pro after the D series, there are there were two other opportunities: in February we moved from Felleca to Pintus; in June from Pintus to Canonico, once again the local entrepreneurs were absent. An unlimited ‘war’ was waged against the ‘Barese’, (also criticized by us, but only for the sporting results of this season), now what are you willing to do for Calcio Foggia?”is the question they ask local entrepreneurs.
The events concerning Calcio Foggia become “increasingly strange and intricate”according to the ultras: “We can accept sporting defeats, we can resign ourselves to the power games experienced in the last year of Serie B with rules and rankings changed at will. We can suffer the same injustices years later against Lecco, where they prevented us from promotion to Serie B, first on the pitch despite the VAR and the ‘obvious oversights’ (in this regard we also remember that the dialogues that took place and requested were never delivered in the ‘sensational episodes’) and subsequently in the halls of power in ‘peremptory and unavoidable terms’. The fans can tolerate that after having come close to qualifying for Europe in the 1993-94 Serie A season, they sadly returned to C2 and since then, with the exception of promotion and the following two years of Serie B (2017-18 and 2018-19) , we have always remained stuck in Lega Pro, a category that in itself is too narrow for us, but this is our sporting history of the last 30 years or so. Now you want to propose the D series, a category that doesn’t belong to us at all and for this reason you will never have our approval”they warn.
They don’t want to talk about debts (“These are not discussions that are our concern”) and recall how the current regulations allow the extension or deferral of certain payments. “Other deadlines cannot be postponed and if they had not been respected they would have resulted in penalty points and Foggia did not suffer any penalties. Everyone knows that 90% of professional clubs have negative balance sheets that are much larger than ours. Also explain to us who can give certainty that starting from the Amateurs you can return to the professionals after a year. Because if we were not to return to the Lega Pro after a year, in addition to the failure of a sporting objective, we would spend much more money than if we immediately restarted from the Lega Pro. Explain to us why there are or have been so many clubs in Serie D that , after a sporting and/or economic failure, it took them many years to recover or, worse, they are still forced to play in the Amateurs: Varese, Treviso, Cavese, Andria, Ravenna, Taranto, Trapani, Reggina, Livorno, Carpi, Siena, Piacenza, Sambenedettese, etc. We want to believe, asking for collaboration and support from everyone, that there is someone who intends to start again from the Lega Pro. Someone who speaks to us of affection for this team and for this city, who for the sacrifices to be made can agree with the Municipality on understanding and availability for the costs of the facility, which can ask the trade associations of this city for greater proximity of ‘numbers and contributions’ in terms of sponsorship, which can ask the fans to support the club with an important season ticket campaign, which can also be supported through valuable merchandising. In essence, we want to hear about passion for our colours, about the desire not to let Calcio Foggia fail and to give this square and this fan base the opportunity to express all its enormous warmth and love for this shirt in the football that counts . Any initiative or commitment spent in support of the club and professional football for our city will always and unconditionally have our maximum support and consent. However, we do not deserve, nor will we ever accept the death of Foggia Football and therefore the restart from the amateurs. Today 12 May, our beloved Foggia turns 104 years of history – they conclude –they cannot be thrown away for dirty interests.”
