- 3 minutes ago
In 2019, Palermo were liquidated and sent to the 4th tier of Italian football. Today, in Serie B, as the newest jewel in the City Football Group empire, they are putting everything in to place to push for a return to the very top. In this documentary, FourFourTwo traveled to Sicily, to see just how the CFG investment is helping the club take shape, and the big role the local fans and culture continue to play in the clubs existence.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:01Something magical, something amazing.
00:04The entrance to the team with that song.
00:12With the choreography, with all those flags.
00:15For me it's an unique emotion.
00:19I think that the emotions are not so many.
00:26I imagine what my players try.
00:31After financial ruin and demotion to Italy's fourth tier back in 2019,
00:36Palermo Football Club are making their way back up to Syria
00:39with investment from the world's biggest footballing empire,
00:43City Football Group.
00:44But this is where the intrigue sets in.
00:47What does it actually mean to be part of this global network of clubs?
00:50What are the benefits beyond shared databases and the influx of capital?
00:54And why does Palermo, the city and the club,
00:57have the foundations upon which to build an intersection
00:59where tradition and ambition can merge?
01:02All the days of the Palermians,
01:04they are basically focused on the culture of Palermo.
01:07Palermo doesn't know its real potential for the future.
01:11From the fans who have seen the journey unfold
01:13to those individuals driving the club's rise from the inside,
01:17442 have come to Sicily to understand the impact on Palermo's structure,
01:21identity and future in this new era of club ownership.
01:26Welcome to Football Explored, this is Palermo.
01:43To understand where Palermo are going, we've first got a look at where they've been.
01:49Founded in 1900, the club's existence has been marked by not only their resilience,
01:54but also their ability to pursue the bad times and make it to the good times.
02:05The club can best be described as bittersweet,
02:08a paradox reflected in the club colours of pink and black.
02:12They are strange colours for the strange history,
02:16represented in pink and black of the history of our city,
02:21not only of Palermo Football Club.
02:23Pink as joy, black as struggle.
02:26After all, this was the team that had a brilliant season on three occasions,
02:30geared up for a Coppa Italia final and then lost all three.
02:37There are no big teams in the world that have the same colours in Palermo.
02:42It represents well the contradictions of this city,
02:45which has great potentials,
02:46but at the same time lives of deep wounds,
02:50deep vicissitudes.
02:53That's why the players of Palermo are very affectionate
02:57to these colours, to this society and to Palermo's flag.
03:01The early 2000s ushered in an era that proved there was hope.
03:06Week in, week out, the fans were watching a team
03:08full of that golden essence of football,
03:10that indescribable joy that players just want to play with.
03:15They were dazzling.
03:16The pitch at Stadio Renzo Barbera provided a platform
03:19for these mercurial talents to shine.
03:21Many of these then became world champions with Italy in 2006.
03:25Fabio Grosso, Timone Barone, Andrea Barzagli, Cristian Zaccardo,
03:30and the big name, the past through Palermo.
03:34Like Cavani, Pastore, Di Bala.
03:36Luca Toni, world champions in 2006, Amaori.
03:40All the players who clearly represented
03:43the international icons.
03:46These weren't just players.
03:48They were a generation of stars that called Palermo home.
03:51The club was on an upward trajectory,
03:54and the infrastructure, though aging, felt like a temple.
03:57But beneath the surface of those golden years
03:59under Chairman Maurizio Zamperini,
04:00the foundation was built on shifting Sicilian sands.
04:04The legend was growing, but the stability was an illusion.
04:11In 2019, the music finally stopped.
04:15After years of financial turmoil, administrative chaos,
04:18failed takeovers, the unthinkable happened.
04:20Palermo, a giant of the Italian game,
04:23were excluded from professional football,
04:25sent down to the fourth tier, which was amateur,
04:28relegated not by the pitch, but by the pen.
04:32It's an absolutely painful feeling.
04:34It means having touched the bottom.
04:36It means having lost their dignity.
04:43As is so normally the case with clubs around the world,
04:46this is probably where the story would have ended.
04:48But not for the Eagles, for the Aquilae.
04:50And what presented itself was a chance
04:52to write another chapter in the history of the club.
04:55Palermo Restart.
04:57The answer of Palermo City was really strong.
05:00We have, just in summer, 30,000 seasonal tickets.
05:04The answer was really another time of love of the people
05:08from our colour, our jersey, our history.
05:11Think about that.
05:12The same fans that had gone from watching
05:14Javier Pastore dance around Inter Milan
05:16were now trudging around the Sicilian countryside
05:18watching semi-professional football.
05:24In July 2022, that cycle was broken.
05:28A city football group, the biggest footballing network on the planet,
05:32chose Palermo as their Italian jewel.
05:37Palermo has a great potential under all points of view,
05:41both for the city and its history, but also for the club.
05:44The first signs of this new era weren't a superstar signing,
05:57but investment into the club itself.
05:58The academy, the training facilities, the coaching department.
06:02It's not storing money at problems and hoping something works,
06:05but using a more club-centric holistic approach
06:07towards the future as well as the now.
06:12The people have started to believe that this project
06:15could be the right thing to release Palermo.
06:23It's not a category that you have.
06:26You have everything to be able to work well,
06:29and it's what I wanted to do.
06:32You have everything to be able to work well,
06:42and it's what I wanted to do.
06:47So this is a long time for the impact of the City Football Group
06:51at Palermo.
06:53It puts Palermo at the same level as the other teams
06:56that have more or less the same ambitions of this club.
06:58What do you think of the City Football Group?
07:09The City Football Group is a reference group
07:12and it's been fundamental for my choice
07:14because when you're behind a group of such a team
07:19that has many teams,
07:21and has a lot of confrontation every day,
07:23it's clear that the sport is something wonderful
07:26because having those teams,
07:28having the opportunity to be able to eat there,
07:31to be able to stay together,
07:32it's something unique and beautiful.
07:34I wish my players
07:36make the fortune they have.
07:41Everybody knows that if you play well for Palermo
07:43all the doors will open for you.
07:44The club belongs to the highest level
07:46and that's our job with the players to do that for them.
07:49Of course, everybody knows in Italy
07:50that City Football Group is part of Palermo,
07:52but in what extent obviously it only came very clear
07:56when you arrived to the club
07:57and then you saw how everything works.
07:59You see that there's a very clear structure
08:02which is coming all the way from the top from Manchester
08:04and they're trying to bring it here to Italy, to Palermo as well.
08:08With CFG, it means the club is part of a global ecosystem
08:11and therefore, figuratively, Palermo is no longer an island.
08:14The training center is a clear example
08:18of how far this project is moving.
08:21The main benefit comes from the interaction
08:25between City Football Groups and Palermo,
08:28the way in which we share platform and technology
08:32in which we analyze data.
08:34It's incredible not only the technology that we use,
08:37but the way in which we interpret data.
08:41It's about learning from each other every time, every day.
08:45It's fantastic.
08:47When the CFG Board Club we had five persons,
08:50now we have 70 people, 70 people in the staff.
08:54We started to build the foundation of the club,
08:56the new connection with everyone.
08:59We want to do better everything,
09:02but without the strong foundation
09:04it's impossible to create the good results on the pitch.
09:10Obviously, it's finalized by reaching
09:12also the sporting objectives,
09:14which is what the audience and the fans expect.
09:17But to reach them, you have to have patience
09:19because first you have to build the bases.
09:22The City Football Group is what they're doing
09:24at the moment of their arrival.
09:32In Palermitano, playing in this stadium is synonymous with passion.
09:36We see it every day,
09:37we see it in the transfert
09:38where it seems like we play at home.
09:41In Serie B, the public, like ours,
09:44there is no one.
09:57Obviously, it would push all the city
10:01to have a team in Serie A,
10:03even because this team
10:05was already in the highest championship
10:06and we saw what it could give Palermo
10:09with a team in Serie A.
10:11So, it would be the closing of a circle.
10:15Their plans for a Serie A comeback
10:17mean they have built the squad with the perfect architecture.
10:20On one hand, you've got the leaders,
10:22you've got the experienced players
10:23who know what it's like to earn promotion.
10:25And on the other hand,
10:26you've got the high ceiling youth prospects
10:28who the club can build a foundation upon
10:30and who all of the fans can hang their hopes and dreams upon.
10:33Historically, the club have been a bit of a feeder club,
10:36a bit of a stepping stone.
10:37A player can come in, prove their worth in a European league
10:40and then go on to bigger and better things.
10:42But that doesn't really sit well with the future ambitions.
10:44The bar has been raised.
10:48They showed me what my role will be in the club
10:50and what not only the short-term plan
10:53but also the long-term plan will be.
10:54Then it convinced me to join Palermo.
10:57But it's not just those who carry the weight of the Palermo shirt
11:01in the heat of the battle
11:02who are solely responsible for the club's success.
11:05The club's past, present and future
11:07sit in the hands of the staff members
11:09who may never get the spotlight
11:11or public recognition that their work deserves.
11:13And this is exactly what CFG have bought into.
11:17The beating heart of the club.
11:19Run by individuals who care for this institution
11:21of Italian football as if it were their own family.
11:24And where even just a few hours before kick-off
11:27there's always time for one more espresso.
11:30Palermo doesn't know its real potential.
11:33The strong opportunity that we have inside
11:36and the opportunity that we can show
11:39and we can achieve in the future.
11:48Palermo arising.
11:49Not by chance, not by fortune
11:51but by building foundations that last.
11:54The mountain of Italian football
11:56isn't for the faint-hearted.
11:59But El Rosanero are ready.
12:05I am Giovanni Tarantino.
12:07I am museum manager for Palermo FC.
12:09I am Giovanni Daraguccione
12:10and I am president of Amici Rosanero.
12:12I am Yuval Pohian Palop
12:13and I am a striker for Palermo FC.
12:15I am Giovanni Gardini.
12:16I am Monsieur Palermo from 4 July 2022.
12:19My name is Massimiliano Radicini.
12:21I am Massimiliano Radicini,
12:22journalist of the Sicily Journal.
12:25I am Massimiliano Radicini,
12:49author of watercolor fernet in France
12:51in Such a digital event.
12:52I am a Christian.
12:52We have a German vision for people
12:52It is about satisfy the various
Comments