Home » At Old Trafford, AS Roma finds its “Quota 100”

At Old Trafford, AS Roma finds its “Quota 100”

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There is always theEngland in the European football destiny of Eternal City, the yellow and red side. In the past three years, as often as the As Roma she reached the semifinals she always found herself in front of an English club. Not to mention the historic, and fatal, final lost against the Liverpool, in the far 1984. There has been an unfinished business between La Lupa and British football for forty years. In 2018 it was again the turn of the Red Devils, in the prestigious setting of the Champions League: semifinal of the cup, lost by the Italians. History also repeats itself on the evening of April 29, 2021: another semi-final, against Manchester United. This time she is the least rich (economically) Europa League, but no less noble. If only because As Roma is the only Italian team left in an international competition and because the last European trophy on the Roman club’s bulletin board is now dusty: it dates back to sixty years ago. It was the 1961 and Rome raised it to the sky Fairs Cup, which would become the Uefa Cup in the 70s, and then the current Europa League from the 90s. The opponent, then, was the Birmingham City. Not even the gods escape their fate, teaches the Greek tragedy. In the fate of Rome, the goddess Eupalla decided, there must always be England.

Rule Britannia

All’Old Trafford, one of the various Olympus of football, the eleven of Daniel fonseca will try to stop the overwhelming power of British football: the Giallorossi will play for access to the final of the Europa League, where last year theInter of Antonio Conte, but losing it). A final that has been missing for 30 years: the last time it was the Champions Cup lost to Liverpool. Forty years ago, Italy and England competed for the scepter of football. Today Serie A is in decline, the last international trophy dates back to 2010, the year of Triplet of Inter’s Josè Mourinho: Italy has never had such a long fast. There Premier League, on the other hand, football dominates in Europe: this year 3 out of eight clubs have reached the semi-finals of the Champions and Europa League. No country has so many teams in the G8 of continental football. Not only that: after the come back of Manchester City, other side of the city, against the PSG, in Paris on the evening of April 28, and the draw at home Real Madrid by the risen one Chelsea of Tuchel, England could monopolize the Champions League: the final in Istanbul risks being a trivial Premier derby, as was the Europa League final two years ago, won by Chelsea then coached by the misunderstood and underestimated Maurizio Sarri, however, in the predicate of replacing Fonseca, another misunderstood, on the bench of Rome. And since the same gods also like to make fun of men, the excessive power of Great Britain falls in the year of Brexi: the country has been out of the EU since 1 January. But it is well within the Europe of football. Rule Britannia was the patriotic song of the English in the 19th century when the country dominated the seas around the world and the empire of Queen Victoria the sun never set.

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The most difficult challenge

For Roma, disappointing and discontinuous in the league but “beautiful at night”, picking up a famous epithet of the former Romanist Zbigniew Boniek, even if it was coined byLawyer when the Pole was in Juve, the match against Manchester United will be the most difficult so far faced by the club from the capital throughout the season: Red Devils they are no longer those of the golden days and are experiencing a phase of decline, but they boast a fearsome squad, especially the former Juventus player Paul pogba and the champion of the cup Bruno Fernandes. Above all, the Red Devils are looking for redemption in the Cup: United are second in the league, but at a sidereal distance from the hated cousins ​​of the City of Pep Guardiola. In the last week they have lost the Carabao Cup (England’s oldest club cup) in the derby with City, and comes from a draw from the away match in Leeds against Peacocks of Andrea Radrizzani. The Europa League final, which was already won four years ago, is the only remaining seasonal goal, just like for Roma. They both need to win. The pendulum of history, unfortunately, plays in favor of the English: up to now United have always won all the matches against Roma. And at Old Trafford, the club hasn’t lost a semifinal since 1997. Roma, on the other hand, haven’t won an away match outside of Italy for twenty years: the last time was 2001, there was once again the black beast Liverpool. But in the Giallorossi house there is some talisman: the “old man” Edin Dzeko is a former Manchester City who has repeatedly chastised United. And the midfielder too Henrik Mkytharian e Chris Smalling I am former Premier League.

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Parallel destinies on the stock market

Similar destinies of Rome and Manchester are also intertwined on the financial and stock market side: United was the first football club in the world to go public in 1990, at the end of the decade of Margaret Tatcher, which marked the beginning of UK turbulence. But then it was delisted from London Stock Exchange in 2012 to go public in New York at the price of 12 dollars per share. Today it is worth the same price as well capitalizes 2.5 billion. The Roma, on the other hand, it boasts the mini-record of being the second club in Italy in the 2000s and today capitalizes 139 million euros. It too is in the odor of saying goodbye to Piazza Affari (because now the free float, around 10%, is so scarce that it makes no sense to remain listed) and the family Friedkin, the new American owners, have already attempted a delisting, but without success, last year.

Around Chiambretti

When at 8 pm local time, the two teams will take the field, the top manager of As Roma Guido Fienga, a past between telephony and pay-TV, first in Wind and then in the deceased Dahlia Tv, he can already smile: having reached only one match from the cup, he has already brought in about 15 million euros of Uefa prizes collected so far (plus the market share that Uefa has yet to define). Even if the adventure of the “Maggica”, as the fans call it, should stop at Old Trafford (or at the Olimpico after a week, on May 6, 2021), for the budgets, recalling a famous joke by the showman Piero Chiambretti, it will have been a success: it is likely that revenues from TV rights and awards will return above the 100 million euro threshold. In the last five years, AS Roma had always kept Quota 100 in revenues: in 2017 the club collected 105 million (including 10 million Uefa market share), because it had participated in the preliminary round of the Champions and Europa League. The following year, that of the glorious semi-final with Liverpool, the balance reached a record figure of 128 million and the Uefa share rose to 45 million. On 30 June 2019, however, the amount collected had dropped to 112 million. Last year, the Covid tile (which then suspended the championship and cups and the related TV rights postponed to 2020-2021) caused the proceeds to drop to 80 million. And the last line of the budget closed with one maxi loss of 200 million, ten times as much the liabilities of the previous year (-24 million). Between the earnings postponed last year and the arrival in the semifinal, AS Roma should return to revenue to review Quota 100. If it were to arrive even at the final of Gdansk, something that hasn’t happened since 1991 at the time of the all-Italian final against Inter, exactly 30 years ago, the cake would be even richer, so much so as to equal the record of 2018. And the turnover of the Lupa could revise 200 million as in 2019, before the pandemic.The fate that the ancient Greeks feared as the most powerful force in the universe always pits AS Roma against mighty English football. Will it end as with the cursed Liverpool or as the heavenly Birmingham?

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