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
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