New Fiorentina will rise from the ashes, say fans

FIORENTINA are dead - long live Fiorentina - that is the message coming from football fans in Florence after their club effectively disappeared from Italian soccer.

The twice Italian champions, riddled with debts and in administration, were on Thursday refused a place in Serie B for next season and are facing almost certain bankruptcy.

With no position in the league, Fiorentina’s players are all up for sale, and the administrator will now have to deal with the cancelling of contracts of all the club’s staff.

But while there have been tears at the loss of a historic 76-year-old club, who were playing in the Champions League just three seasons ago, there is hope that Florence will keep a presence in professional football - and that the club will be called Fiorentina.

Florence city council said on Thursday evening that they had formed a new club called Fiorentina 1926 Florentia with the city’s mayor Leonardo Domenici as the first president.

The hope is that soccer authorities will grant the new club a place in the third division (Serie C1) or the fourth level (Serie C2), offering the city the chance of a route back into the top flight.

It is a humbling request for a city whose team were recently beating the likes of AC Milan and Manchester United but it is the only hope.

The new club, backed by the city council and with mayor Leonardo Domenici as the first president, has just a week to find a real private owner and convince the Italian Football League that it has the resources to compete in C1 or C2.

“My role is only to give a guarantee to Florence and the Italian Football Federation. My task is for the new Fiorentina to find strong investors, healthy and honest, who can carry out a re-launch,” said Domenici.

For the fans of the club it is clear that any new backer must be free of any links to Fiorentina president Vittorio Cecchi Gori, the film maker who is blamed for the club’s predicament.

“None of the old faces - none of those compromised during the Cecchi Gori era,” wrote one fans’ website. Italian media reports are suggesting Enrico Preziosi, currently president of Serie A club Como, is the most likely backer.

But whoever is the new backer they will find that after years of conflict between club and fans the current crisis has at least brought unity among football lovers in Florence.

At meetings across the city on Thursday supporters’ clubs promised that they would back the new club and continue to turn out in numbers even in the lower divisions.

Eugenio Giani, Florence city council’s head of sport, and a founder of the new club, believes it is vital that fans be involved closely in the rebirth of Fiorentina.

“It is right that the supporters participate fully in the new club. The new Fiorentina will belong to the whole city - that is what we are working for now,” he said.