It is a moment of strong emotional charge and strategic turning point for the future of football in Reggio Calabria. The mayor Francesco Cannizzaro officially opened the new amaranth course, sanctioning the agreement with the president Claudio Lotito.
«The most beautiful city in the world deserves respect. Reggio absolutely cannot remain outside of the great Italian football”, began an emotional Cannizzaro in front of an attentive and enthusiastic audience. Despite his habit of public interventions, the mayor did not hide his strong emotion: «The scenario speaks for itself. For someone like me who is used to speaking in public it should be easy, but today I confess to you that I am deeply moved and excited. This is Reggio Calabria.”
The pact for the amaranth relaunch
A central passage of the speech was dedicated to thanking and welcoming the patron of the operation: «The first thing that comes to me to say, with great gratitude and profound personal and institutional respect, is simply: welcome to Reggio Calabria, Claudio Lotito». The agreement marks the beginning of an ambitious project born from the desire to give concrete answers to the fans and the entire Reggio community. «I promised my city that I would try by all means to solve the problem of Reggina – concluded Cannizzaro – and Claudio Lotito immediately fell in love with this project». With the entry of the new management group, a page of hope and relaunch is now opening for Reggina and its supporters to return to playing a leading role in the national football panorama.
Lotito: “I want to bring Reggina back to the football that counts, creating a solid structure”
“I inherited a complicated situation through no fault of my own because I gave all my availability. We – underlined Lotito – must create because we all work together to achieve the objectives. I arrived 10 days late because I wanted to collect some factual data, in the meantime we registered the team for the championship then presented our sporting director Romairone and on the basis of this we have drawn up a project to relaunch Reggina football, we have chosen the coach we will present and we are choosing the players. We are working daily making resources available for relaunch Reggina. I want to bring Reggina back to the football that matters, creating a solid structure.”
“Taking away timeshares is a short-sighted vision”
“That rule on timeshare was detrimental to Italian football, dual ownership was my intuition because it protects the territory and also helps on an economic level. If we go and check what is happening in Europe we can see that there are numerous timeshares and I have already given an direction to the Football League to restore timeshare because today there is a lack of those who invest in the system due to this rule which has eliminated timeshare. I don’t promise anything, I live day by day from this point of view In the meantime, let’s win this championship and then think about the future, which I’m already working on. For me, removing the timeshare is a short-sighted vision.”
“I’m used to making long-term plans”
“I’m certainly not used to making short-term, but medium-long-term plans. We have a duty to free ourselves from amateur football and then we will also try to grow in professional football. Today it is useless to make proclamations, but I am convinced that with everyone’s help we can bring Reggina back to the top.”