The epilogue of the strangest and most exhausting summer in the history of Reggina is ever closer. Tomorrow is the day of the hearing at the Council of State for the appeal against the exclusion from the Serie B championship. The desire of the Amaranth fans to get there with new ownership currently clashes with the evidence of the facts. There is no news of an agreement in a sui generis situation where the owner of 100% of the company shares, Manuele Ilari, will remain as such only if the Council of State agrees with the club. Otherwise the club will return to Felice Saladini.
The buyers, a group of entrepreneurs, would like to go ahead and close before Tuesday, despite the uncertainties dependent on the outcome of the appeal. It is necessary to find conditions that satisfy the transferring party, who today may also consider it more appropriate to wait for a possible admission. Today will certainly be the decisive day.
The Council of State’s ruling will be based on the merits of the registration issue, but in Reggio it is believed that presenting itself with new ownership would guarantee greater credibility. It would be a way to distance ourselves from the last few weeks and from the concept of the “ghost club” that has made its way into the collective imagination.
Interpreting the latest ruling of the TAR, Reggina’s failure to register is attributable to the payment of 750,000 euros of outstanding debts, resulting from the restructuring of the debt, which occurred after the peremptory deadline of 20 June. According to the TAR, the Amaranth club, despite the approval ruling allowing it to do so in July, could pay between 12 June (the day the provision was issued) and 20 (football deadline for registrations for the championships).
No in-depth analysis, however, on the question of the non-definitive restructuring plan as it could be appealed, which instead had been highlighted by the sports institutions and which seemed to be an insurmountable obstacle. In the TAR ruling we read that the famous press release 169/A “does not dictate harmful provisions” for the Amaranth company. «But – it is explained – it actually allowed her to validly submit the application for registration in the championship, although it was subject to regulatory proceedings».
Official press release 169/A, published in April, contains the resolutions of the Federal Council to regulate the registrations of teams which, like Reggina, had benefited from the Business Crisis and Insolvency Code.
Now it is probable that the amaranth appeal makes direct reference to “point C” of 169/A, in which companies are asked to observe “as far as not otherwise prescribed” by provisions such as those for the approval of the judicial authority all the obligations required by the registration procedures. And the deadline after 20 June for the payment of approximately 750,000, present in the homologation sentence, in Reggina’s defense would be an indication of the right to pay after 20 June.