After Pisa, three more famous clubs bite the dust

By: Francesco | July 11th, 2009

These are the days when clubs have to register for next season and when we find out which clubs don’t have the necessary funds to compete next season. Yesterday, we learned about Pisa’s unfortunate fate, and today, two more famous clubs have announced they will have to go bankrupt and start from scratch in Serie D. Those clubs are Venezia, Avellino, and Treviso.

Venezia were once owned by current Palermo boss Maurizio Zamparini. They were a yo-yo club between Serie A and Serie B in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and then once Zamparini sold the club to go and buy Palermo, the club went down the drain and wound up bankrupt in 2005. Even with a sense of optimism for the new ownership and re-founded club which quickly gained promotion back to Serie C1, the ownership group couldn’t handle the debt anymore and this past season did not even pay player salaries for a couple of months. Miraculously the club avoided relegation this year, but the owner Arrigo Poletti didn’t have the necessary funds to register the club for next season. Yesterday tons of Venezia fans were outside the club offices awaiting the fate of their beloved Lagunari but by 8 PM their were fans in tears as they found out the club would be starting anew from Serie D.

Avellino were a consistent Serie A club in the late 70’s and 80’s, playing in the top division from 1978 to 1988. From then on they spent the 90’s and 2000’s jumping around Serie C and Serie B and never could get any consistency. However, this is their first bankruptcy in their 97 years of existence and it comes as a big blow for the Lupi fans. The Pugliese brothers, who have owned the club since 2004, let the finances slip and needed around 4,200,000 euro to save the club from bankruptcy. However they couldn’t find the funds needed and had no choice but to declare the club bankrupt. Avellino are another club who have a huge loyal fan base that has always packed the stadium whether they were playing in Serie A, B, or C and now they will have to suffer watching their squad in Serie D. But this could open a new chapter for the club.

Treviso were in Serie A as recently as the 2005/2006 season (although they were only promoted because of Genoa’s match-fixing scandal) when they finished dead last and were quickly relegated back to Serie B. Since then, the club has suffered a downward spiral, fighting against relegation the past few seasons in Serie B. President Ettore Setten has been in charge since 2001 and after the year in Serie A hasn’t taken good care of the club, which now finds itself in this mess. Treviso too will now have to repart from Serie D next season.