To better understand part of Bari’s current situation it is good to review what happened in the past: well before the De Laurentiis but above all after the sadly ‘famous’ relegation from Serie A. When we thought we had reached the bottom from a sporting and moral point of view, without knowing that – instead – even darker times still awaited the fate of the red and white club. Sometimes it happens that the word hope rhymes with illusion. A concept that can be summed up with a date: May 20, 2014.
Hot days, or rather months, those. In which Bari was waiting for a turning point on a corporate level. There was a need to move on after the last sad years of the Matarrese, no longer able to manage the club as in the past and in difficulty. After the relegation and the football betting, the previous March 7th was followed by the bankruptcy driven by the books in court. With Saint Nicholas who had emptied himself, only to start filling up again and making his chest fill with pride. We dreamed big, we even dreamed of Europe as well as Serie A. Gianluca Paparesta, a former football referee but who had never missed a thought about Bari, tried to translate these aspirations into reality, even once he became a commentator television. He took over Bari from the managed bankruptcy, winning the auction at the end of a head-to-head with Cipollone, representative of the entrepreneur Becchetti. An intriguing and fascinating bet but also risky at the same time, without solidity behind it and at least a medium-term vision, with planning. Rumors of the time spoke of interests from Russia, India, Türkiye and so on and so forth. But the reality, in the end, was very different and after an initial enthusiasm, the following months (and above all the years) slowly dismantled dreams and illusions. With some choices on a technical, managerial and sporting level which certainly did not contribute to improving the situation.
Paparesta tried, certainly in good faith and with passion. But it wasn’t enough, for the reasons mentioned above. Despite the absurd Noordin affair, a sad fact has always emerged: Bari has never, at least apparently, tempted anyone. Never anyone who really tried to make it big or seriously structure the club. The reasons? Multiple. The rest is history: Giancaspro, the second bankruptcy and above all the De Laurentiis timeshare. A circle that in the long run turned out to be vicious and annoying, with very unclear programs and a corporate value that was far from clear, assuming that the club was really for sale. Net of a Serie A missed by just 120 seconds, there is now the nightmare of a return to C. But even if it were salvation in B, what would there be to celebrate? Thinking back to ten years ago and the illusions of that time and colliding with current reality and the experience of recent years is profoundly bitter. And it seems like a tunnel from which Bari and Bari just can’t seem to emerge.
“Without the Matarrese the great football in Bari is over” was the sentence of some some time ago. In light of the history of the last ten years, these words sound like a curse. And, unfortunately, they damn well correspond to the truth between playoffs lost between B and C, immense disappointments, fools, and in the meantime seeing provincial realities, even unusual ones, appearing in the A much more than the red and whites. A coat of arms that has been repeatedly defaced from 2001 to today: in the famous year of Cassano’s move from Bari to Roma, Bari had 28 A championships and 31 B championships, in addition to the 8 C championships. Now there are 30 A championships, those of B 48 (in case of salvation 49) and in C we reached 11 (perhaps 12). So the red and white one became a fallen nobleman.
It is the defeat of a city, of an entire territory (and if we want entrepreneurial fabric) that was unable to take control of the situation, question itself, set up a project from the ground up. Always deferring to others rather than avoiding waiting for failures and starting from the bottom. Because intervening earlier and avoiding catastrophes was indeed possible. Quite the opposite of what is happening in Lecce, where a sports center is now also being planned. This word is literally unknown in Bari. Regardless of how the playout against Ternana will end, the Bari square must examine its conscience. And if he is able to bring out his pride. Because we can’t go on like this anymore.
