Bari is saved by a miracle, but next year will be a new year zero. Too many things didn’t work this season for us to think about starting again and pretending that nothing happened. In 11 months the idyll that the De Laurentiis family had created with the square was shattered dramatically. A season can go badly, especially after having been able to go from the hell of Serie D to the gates of paradise of Serie A in five years. Yet, what happened in this championship was a disaster not only on the pitch game, but also for how the relationship with fans who feel betrayed was managed. Bari played badly, but if it’s possible they communicated worse.
First the long and unacceptable silences that followed the playoff final lost to Cagliari, then some proclamations that were never reflected in the facts. There was talk of a playoff objective, but in the meantime the valuable pieces from last championship were given up and the focus was on loans of players who were never truly motivated.
The remedies adopted by sporting director Ciro Polito were always worse than the disease, as evidenced by the four changes of coaches. Next year should have been the third of the three-year project to attack Serie A, but it’s really hard to understand who we can start from again. The same red and white sporting director seems to be at the end of the credits (he still has another year on his contract) and Beppe Iachini is still under contract for the bench, sacked after ten games in the red and white. But what hurt the Bari fans the most were the utterances of the owner of Filmauro, Aurelio De Laurentiis, who on two occasions said things that were unacceptable for the seventh largest fan base in Italy: once he labeled Bari as the second team in the his Napoli, while on the eve of the playout final in Terni, speaking to the Senate, he hinted that without the timeshare clearance or the arrival of powerful investors, Bari could go bankrupt in 2028, the deadline for owning two football teams professional
The owner De Laurentiis, who is anything but naive, probably uttered those words in that highly institutional context to ensure that timeshare is no longer a taboo. The problem is that he said certain things a few hours before a match that for the fans was a question of life or death, not caring about the reaction his words would have on those who love Bari. There is the cynicism of an entrepreneur , a job that De Laurentiis knows how to do very well. But to get in tune with a passionate square like the red and white one you need at least a pinch of heart.
