By Mark Baber
February 12 – New Parma president Giampietro Manenti, chief executive of the Mapi Group which bought Parma for 1 Euro earlier this week, is confident the club can meet its obligations and pay off all its debts by the end of this month. Damiano Tommasi, president of the Italian footballer’s union the AIC, on the other hand, thinks it is unlikely the debt can be paid and is concerned for the welfare of the players.
The Mapi Group became Parma’s third owners this season, acquiring the club from an Albanian-Russian-Cypriot group of investors earlier this week, but they have only until Monday to pay off arrears of income tax, to avoid the club going into administration and to avoid a three point deduction. They also need to start catching up on arrears of player wages to avoid more of the playing staff walking out of the door.
Manenti told the club’s official web site: “Parma’s debt is not what I’ve read in the newspapers,” claiming ,”we hope to pay off the income tax by the 16th [February] and a few wages.
“Then between the 20th and 22nd [February], we will try to pay off everything else.
“From a financial standpoint, the 16th is a very important date to avoid a three-point punishment,” Manenti said. “We are hoping to avoid that.”
If the financial hurdles can be overcome in the next couple of weeks, the club, rooted to the bottom of the table, still has a massive struggle on its hands to avoid relegation.
Damiano Tommasi, president of the Italian footballer’s union the AIC is far less optimistic about Parma’s immediate prospects saying: “We need to protect the professionalism of the players and the regularity of the league. The debt is at a certain level, and it’s difficult to think that it can be settled.
“Those who are seeking to settle it are right to offer assurances to those who seek them, but the debt is substantial and very worrying.”
The situation of Parma is a sad reflection of the slide in the fortunes of Serie A and many of its clubs. Parma, which enjoyed glory in the heydays of the Parmalat empire, has suffered increasingly since that company’s collapse.
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