“Venice, new members arrive”, headlines The Gazzettino.
White smoke for a group of American entrepreneurs who will work alongside the president in the company.
A final around the corner together with Niederauer’s new partners, a team aligned and compact behind its coach in chasing the Big Dream, a city in turmoil and feverish with cheering. And a club that, one step at a time, is emerging from the quagmire of one
difficult economic situation, the result of management errors now belonging to the past.
The first, important because registration for the championship was also at stake
(the deadline was brought forward to 4 June), was completed in recent days, with the resolution of the dispute that arose with Bayern Munich and Leuven due to the failure to settle the purchase of Cuisance and Henry, with the related double Fifa ban and consequent stop to 3 transfer sessions: issue closed with the respective club owners of the card, thanks to the payment of the missing fee for the attacker and the extension of the payment for the midfielder. Just as the dispute that arose with Groningen for the purchase of Sverko was resolved: here too payment was completed and peace was made, without the involvement of FIFA. If anything, the question remains open
linked to the sale of Zabala to Olimpia Asuncion, but in this case it is Venezia that is a creditor towards the Paraguayan club, with which an agreement to collect the money is however close. But the good news isn’t over.
In fact, the equally fundamental question remained open relating to the arrival of the new American partners, ready to support the “historic” group headed by
Duncan Niederauer. And also in this case the expected white smoke arrived from the USA. The negotiation for the expansion of the corporate structure of VFC Newco2020 Llc, the US vehicle company that owns 100% of Venezia’s shares, can in fact be considered to be in the home stretch, thanks to the entry of a small
group of new American entrepreneurs (and the simultaneous exit of a couple of the current ones), who will thus strengthen the club from a financial point of view, thanks to the injection of liquidity into the lagoon coffers. The operation is now in the details and the closing is practically done. An investment certainly lower than what had initially been envisaged in the case, hypothesized in January by Niederauer, of the entry of an investment fund (talks had been started with Cerberus and two other mutual funds), which would have had to take over the 40% of the shares
shares, paying a figure close to 20 million euros. But the arrival of new private partners still guarantees the possibility of facing the future in a more serene way, whatever category Venezia will find itself playing in next year. Even more so if Vanoli’s team manages to make the great leap and conquer Serie A, which thanks to the income guaranteed by the mutuality (at least 30 million), not to mention the greater revenues from merchandising, ticketing and sponsorships, would allow it to resolve almost entirely the club’s budget problems.
