Antonello Gagliardi plays in advance and, with an email addressed to the members with the president Pippo Caffo in mind, announced his resignation as both general manager and CEO. At the extraordinary board of directors called for tomorrow afternoon he will therefore present himself as having resigned. A move that anticipates the probable dismissal by a few hours. The farewell of the manager from Vibo is not a bolt from the blue and for the attentive observers of the rossoblù events it was in the air. No earthquake, in short.
Relations with the Caffo family were reduced to the minimum after some positions taken by Gagliardi without the necessary and due authorization from the owners. The top management represented by Pippo Caffo in fact, it tends to separate the managerial aspect from the technical one. On the field, Vibonese gave her best and the president has little to say to the coach Antonio Buscè and the team went beyond the wildest expectations.
There is a different opinion on the objectives to be achieved off the field and here the notes become painful by calling Gagliardi into question in the dual role of CEO and general manager. The expansion of the corporate base was only in form but not in substance with president Caffo forced into a new recapitalization to contain losses and the Caffo group injecting liquidity in the form of sponsorships for around 500 thousand euros.
All the other shareholders do not exceed 30% of the shares and their contribution, although valuable, is not enough to cover the enormous expenses of a club that is condemned to win in Serie D.
Gagliardi had made the commitment to start the popular share ownership which, however, remained at a standstill just as the project with the schools did not take off while the revenue numbers for each single match were confirmed to be disappointing with an average of no more than 500 paying spectators and a peak of 1500 in the playoffs with Reggina (800 of these, however, were Amaranth fans).
Vibonese could have collected something from pay-TV but despite the partnership with a local media, its matches were never broadcast live, to the understandable complaint of the rossoblù fans who live outside the Calabrian borders. Nothing has been done on the modernization of the stadium with Gagliardi slamming – like others in the past – the inability of the Municipality of Vibo to write a tender for the multi-year management of the facility. Enough to understand that the resignation of the general director – revocable or irrevocable – will be accepted by the rossoblù president Caffo who will not leave the leadership of Vibonese and, probably, already has a plan in mind to relaunch it.