| Today, the president and owner of the Italian football club Roma, Franco Sensi, is due to announce the sale of a controlling stake in the club to the Russian oil company Nafta-Moscow. According to the Italian Gazzetta dello Sport, negotiations on the sale of the club have entered the final stage, and all that remains is to settle some formalities. Yesterday, trading in shares of the Roma-2000 company, which owns the football club, was suspended on the Milan Stock Exchange. Nafta-Moscow has not yet commented on the deal. “The company will make an official statement in the next few days,” company press secretary Mikhail Smirnov told the Vremya Novostei newspaper.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport, negotiations on the part of the Russian company were conducted by lawyer Trifiro, and the owner of the controlling stake, Suleiman Kerimov, did not even appear in Rome. Journalists from the Italian publication are almost sure that Roman Abramovich is behind this deal. Let us recall that after the purchase by the Chukotka governor of London's Chelsea, the foreign press had already reported on supposedly similar transactions being prepared: Vladimir Potanin, according to such rumors, was buying London's Arsenal, and Alexander Mamut was buying Blackburn.
Now the entire football world is wondering whether Roman Abramovich is behind Mr Kerimov. This issue has serious legal implications. According to UEFA rules, one person cannot own two clubs competing in the same competition. Chelsea and Roma are likely to play in the Champions League next season. Consequently, Messrs. Kerimov and Abramovich are doomed to closely examine their affiliation with each other.
And few in Russian business circles can answer this question unequivocally. Although, according to information from reliable sources in the Vremya Novostey newspaper, Mr. Kerimov, if he has partners, is by no means Mr. Abramovich.
Reports of Nafta-Moscow's intention to acquire Roma appeared on February 10. According to unofficial information, a representative of the Russian company Valery Semenov met with the daughter of the club president Rosela Sensi and head coach Fabio Capello and offered 400 million euros for the Italian club. Of these, 100 million were offered to the owner of the controlling stake (63.77%) Franco Sensi. At the same time, however, Roma’s press service denied these reports. However, just a few days later, the club’s sports director, Franco Baldini, admitted to contacts with the Russian company. And on February 24, Franco Sensi himself said: “It is true that we are negotiating. But, apparently, they will be very long.”
As it turned out, Senor Sensi had no more than a week to make a decision. Roma was mired in debt (according to various sources, they amount to 300-500 million euros), and by the end of February the club had to undergo licensing with UEFA. With such debts and lack of financial guarantees, the club risked being left without a license and losing its place in European competition and even in Serie A of the Italian championship.
By selling the team, Franco Sensi managed to avoid a high-profile scandal, to which he, however, is no stranger. During the 11 years that 77-year-old Sensi has been leading Roma, he has managed to quarrel with almost all his colleagues and leaders of the Italian league, made a lot of loud statements and debts, took the club public in May 2000 and won the Italian championship in 2001 . However, during this time he never did what was expected of him even more than the championship - he did not build his own stadium for the team.
So what did Nafta-Moscow acquire besides a high-profile brand, large debts and the current second place in the Italian championship? First of all, these are transfers of leading football players. This winter, the same Abramovich, according to rumors, offered 120 million euros for team leaders Francesco Totti and Emerson. All the other players cost about the same, of which the rising star Antonio Cassano stands out. In addition, the Russian company should receive the Fulvio Bernardini training center in Trigoria, the Roma-channel television channel created in October 2000 and, possibly, shares of the Serie B club Palermo and the French team Nice, part of a kind of football concern , who created Sensi. But most importantly, Nafta-Moscow most likely received the construction of a new arena for Roma frozen for decades, the site for which was chosen back in 1986. According to the project, it should be a grandiose structure with restaurants, shopping malls and powerful infrastructure. In England, by the way, many are still convinced that Abramovich bought Chelsea precisely because of the real estate owned by the club. Andrey VDOVIN, Ivan GORDEEV
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