Today is the day of registration in Serie D for the new Reggina. The deadline for submitting all the documentation aimed at giving the city a football team back to the city expires at 12 after the vicissitudes that led Reggina 1914 to be excluded from the B championship. The admission request must be followed by the OK from the FIGC.
It could be the definitive point for a summer in which little or nothing was said about football. It is up to “La Fenice Amaranto” to lead the operations in what, in the end, will have been a real race against time. The company will also present a cashier’s check for 400,000 euros for supernumerary registration and will comply with all other financial obligations required for registration (additional commitment of approximately 500,000 euros).
There is also a wait to know which name will be chosen and above all whether the conditions will be met to use one that is different from the one used when the club was founded and which the fans don’t like. For at least a year it will become the provisional name, in anticipation of being able to take action to officially regain what has distinguished the more than one hundred year history of amaranth.
Yesterday there was a meeting between the new club, a delegation of Curva Sud fans and the mayor Paolo Brunetti.
«We have expressed – we read in a statement signed by President Virgilio Minniti – our bitterness for the attacks suffered in the last few hours by both the press and some parts of the city; attacks that we honestly don’t believe we deserve, given the seriousness of our commitment.”
It is no mystery that Reggio Calabria has largely expressed its opposition to the decision of the acting mayor Paolo Brunetti to choose “La Fenice Amaranto” and not the company formed by Stefano Bandecchi and the Reggio entrepreneurs.
The requests to the mayor to retrace his steps were pressing, so much so that the very words of a statement from Minniti gave the green light for a possible step back if it was deemed appropriate. A solution for which, however, even if the intentions had been there, the necessary time would probably have been lacking on the eve of the final act.
The request for transparency once again emerged from the fans during the meeting and clarity on ideas, as well as reassurances on the economic sustainability of a long-term project that can be ambitious.
Also because Reggio Calabria’s fears are all there: the new ownership, which expresses a lower turnover than the other expression of interest, will be able to immediately and without long waits give the possibility of returning to C and then perhaps to B ?
«The company – clarified Brunetti during the meeting – had the opportunity to illustrate its plans on the financial and sporting project».
The mayor expressed understanding towards the very dubious position of the fans: «They are embittered, disoriented and suspicious, they have swallowed many bitter pills in recent years and even more so in the last two months. They deserve all the respect in the world.”
“The company – added the mayor – must guarantee full transparency, financial stability, sporting ambition and naturally it must demonstrate that it knows how to guarantee on the field, day after day, the trust of a people who have been repeatedly deluded”.
“We believe – Minniti explained in his statement – that the genuineness of our intentions and the concreteness of our project clearly emerged during the meeting”.
Ok the “Granillo”. In the evening the first white smoke: «We received from the acting mayor Brunetti, whom we thank, the letter of accreditation of the City of Reggio Calabria addressed to the FIGC and the authorization for the availability of the “Oreste Granillo” stadium as per our request. We are working to complete the file and advance it electronically to the FIGC already this evening, and then arrange for the paper deposit and delivery of the checks tomorrow morning, by the established deadline.”
