In an official press conference, Massimo Zanetti, Virtus majority owner, silenced all doubts about the club's future and explained that he's not going anywhere. Zanetti also took several jabs at Luca Baraldi, who'll no longer be the CEO of Virtus Bologna
In an official press conference, Massimo Zanetti, the majority owner of Virtus Segafredo Bologna, silenced all the criticism surrounding the club and cleared the air regarding doubts about its future.
Zanetti wanted to clarify that he will continue as the club's majority owner for the foreseeable future and that the issues of this season are mostly related to an aura of negativity that was cast on the club in recent months by the local media.
"There are no issues inside Virtus Bologna," Zanetti explained to the media. "I'm proud to be the owner, and I'll continue to be the owner also in the future. I have a good relationship with my partner, Carlo Gheardi, and we have no issues. There's a very good situation inside the club."
"The issues that we're facing on the court this season are also related to an aura of negativity that has surrounded the club since this summer, mostly created by the media and amplified by some people inside the club.
"If these rumors spread, then it's normal that the players will be affected," the majority owner continued.
Zanetti stated that yesterday, he and two other members of the club's board of directors stepped down to create a new organizational structure.
"There'll be a new assembly in the next few days, and a new board will be announced," Zanetti specified. "I'll continue in my role. Luca Baraldi will leave and go on his own way, and Marco Comellini will come in and manage the financial/administrative area. At the same time, Paolo Ronci, who I trust a lot, will continue to manage the sporting area."
Zanetti also heavily criticized Luca Baraldi, who has been the CEO of the club since Zanetti took control of Virtus.
Zanetti explained that he generated a bad atmosphere around the club by taking too much to people outside of the organization.
Zanetti also added that Baraldi didn't do a good job handling the numbers this summer, forcing the club to change the budget on multiple occasions.
"Baraldi, as the CEO, was interfering too much in the sporting area and used to talk about topics that he wasn't supposed to talk about," Zanetti clarified. "From now on, there'll be a strong separation between the financial and the sporting area. If you want to talk about the roster, you'll talk to Ronci, and that's it."
"The budget for this season? We had to change it several times because we followed Baraldi's numbers, but they weren't correct. An example? This summer, I was told that the money that we were spending on the women's section of the club wasn't affordable anymore.
"I had a lot of pride in our women's team, but when I was presented with the numbers, I accepted the decision to shut down the project.
"But in the following months, we had to adjust our budget on several occasions, injecting more than double the money that we used to spend on the women's team, so clearly Baraldi didn't do a good job; we had to change the numbers four times," Zanetti accused the now-former CEO.
Zanetti also briefly talked about the relationship with the EuroLeague, emphasizing another of Baraldi's flaws.
"The relationship with EuroLeague? It's good. They're proud to have us as part of the organization. Ronci will continue to manage that aspect. Baraldi wasn't in charge of the relationship with EuroLeague, he doesn't even speak English," Zanetti noted.
Paolo Ronci, the general director of the club, also talked about the arrival of Justin Holiday, who'll be on trial for 10 days.
"We made this decision in collaboration with our head coach, Dusko Ivanovic. Holiday is a player with a lot of experience. Dusko will test him in the next few days, and then he'll make a decision. If he's accepted, he'll sign a three-month deal with an option to extend for another two months," Zanetti confirmed.
Zanetti also stressed the importance of having a friendly relationship with the local media.
He hinted at the fact that, in recent months, the media generated way too much negativity around the team.
"As local media, you should be proud to have such a team like Virtus Bologna, a team with a lot of history and tradition.
"But this season, I've seen so much negativity. You spend time writing articles that imply that we're about to fail or something or that we don't know how to do our jobs. You should help Virtus and not create problems," Zanetti concluded.
Like what we are doing? You can express your gratitude here.
