The Juventus president: “The project cannot go on: now I will dedicate myself 100% to Juventus”
TURIN. The first cracks stretched by the English clubs, then, between regrets and pressure, the diaspora. In the end, Andrea Agnelli was left alone. Like Florentino Perez, but more exposed and fragile: no more political offices, branded as a liar by Aleksander Ceferin and accused of betrayal in the League, symbol of the Super League flop, the face of a planetary fool and a revolution that has become defeated. The strong man of European football, president of the ECA and member of the UEFA Executive, finds himself rejected, the avant-garde manager becomes a visionary.
He still believes in the project, however, unrolling it, he failed: he had not imagined the strong reactions of the governments or the vehement protests of the fans, above all he had not taken into account the weakness of the alliance. On Tuesday evening, although the wall was already creaking, he had ruled out the collapse with arrogance, talked about a blood pact between the founding companies, guaranteed continuity and success. In a night of excited virtual meetings he realized he was wrong, after a few hours of restless sleep, he was forced to sign the surrender: “I am convinced of the beauty of the project, we would have created the most beautiful competition in the world, but to be frank and honest can’t go on ».
Agnelli speaks to the Reuters, from his office overlooking the stadium. At work he showed up early, hiding tiredness and disappointment, he respected the agenda by trying to control the turmoil inside and articulated his thoughts in the official note of the club: “Juventus, while remaining convinced of the validity of the sporting, commercial and legal assumptions of the project, believes that it currently has limited possibilities of being completed in the form in which it was initially conceived. Juventus remains committed to the search for building long-term value for the club and for the entire football movement ».
He will now be able to do it from the outside, he has no more charges and he has too many enemies. They say that Ceferin did not even want to send ambassadors to Turin because he did not intend to negotiate with him. The president is alone, with his bitter reflections, with the latest complaints on the unreliability of the football system and on the threats received from the clubs belonging to the Super League. He is defeated, disheartened, dumped by his allies, trapped in the rubble of a shattered revolution, wrecked too quickly not to be ramshackle: he works until he reaches the stadium to follow the match against Parma – there are no new offensive banners, only l huge Tapir brought as a gift by Strip the news-, silently collects the social ironies, the opposing arrows, the replies to his explanations of the failure, including that of the English government that had brought up the rethinking of the Premier clubs.
“Given what happened – he sighs – I will have time to dedicate myself 100% to Juventus and I will do it with the same passion”: a promise that drives away the rumors of resignation, wandering for two days and stronger than denials, but it is not enough to extinguish those on an alternation, albeit not immediate, a reflection of the dented image, of the emptiness and tensions around: the name of his cousin Alessandro Nasi, a past on Wall Street, president of the Comau robotics industry belonging to the Stellantis group, circulates, but for now it’s just a scenario.