Rocco Commisso warned he is giving serious consideration to his future as President and owner of Fiorentina after the backlash from Dusan Vlahovic’s sale to Juventus. ‘I know some appreciate my money, but not my presence.’
The Italian-American is currently back in the United States due to health reasons and gave a 20-minute phone interview with the official Fiorentina website.
After going through the entire Vlahovic contract saga and his eventual transfer to bitter rivals Juventus, Commisso turned to his own supporters.
The presence of a banner depicting the President as the Joker character from Batman, placed on the Ponte Vecchio, seemed to particularly hurt the businessman.
“I find it incredible that none of the institutions in the city condemned such an offensive image hanging on a monument like Ponte Vecchio.
Commisso slams Vlahovic, agents, Juventus and Fiorentina fans
“Nobody intervened and nobody is looking for those who were responsible. That is a sacred place in Florence and the insult is unacceptable: there are other clowns here.
“There were moments when the ‘I stand with Rocco’ banners were everywhere, but not feeling support at this moment was deeply disappointing.
“Now I am aware that there are some who appreciate my money, but not my presence in Florence. Considering this situation and many others I’ve had to fight since taking over the club, I have to reflect very carefully, analyse in depth and make clear and transparent decisions, out of respect for those fans who continue to show respect to me.”
Commisso has fought constantly with the local council and various levels of Italian Government to get a new stadium approved, or even get permission to restructure the existing Stadio Franchi, to no avail.
“I spent €314m since I bought this club, including €34m for the Viola Park training centre. That’s €170m to buy the club, €110m to help Fiorentina balance the books. I never used banks or loans. I can’t keep putting in €110m every two years by myself. All I can promise the fans is I will never bring Fiorentina to bankruptcy.”
He then sent out a warning to the supporters who seem to want him out after the Vlahovic sale to Juventus.
“In May 2021 I left it open for anyone in Florence to purchase the club, but nobody stepped forward. The control of the future sale of Fiorentina is and will always be in my hands.
“I hope someone will now reflect. You know what you’ve got now, but not what the future could hold.”
“Insulti inaccettabili, i pagliacci sono altri. Vlahovic voleva rovinarci”. Tutte le parole di Commisso https://t.co/LXevEWtTdf
— TUTTOmercatoWEB (@TuttoMercatoWeb) February 1, 2022
This man cannot take criticism and thinks way too highly of himself, to the point it gets a bit ridiculous. Someone should explain to him that if tomorrow morning he decided to leave Fiorentina no one would care.
every time something happens he threatens to sell the team. Does he think this endears him to the fio faithful? I’m tired of this mans grandstanding.
I’ve never heard him threaten to sell the team before. He only stated previously that if someone thinks they can do better for Fiorentina and has the money to buy the club, they should do it. He’s been fighting the good fight for Fiorentina at every turn- new stadium, new training ground, trying to keep our best players and bring in new players. I am ashamed of fellow Fiorentina supporters for being so dumb in their inability to realize, that Juve and Vlahovic’s agent had an agreement where, if he wasn’t sold now, he would go to Juve for free at the end of next season and another year of controversy would hang over the team. Instead, like a proper businessman, he got a ridiculous sum for a player who wanted to leave and will re-invest it in the club. That is, unless a few imbecile fans make him tire of the team and he sells it. Then the real fun begins. You can’t fix stupid. Rocco did everything he could to keep Vlahovic and Vlahovic and his crooked agent did all they could to leave.
Commisso is 100% correct in his comments and he is well within his comments to voice them. I know that they hate Juve, but it is an absurd reaction by the fans and not warranted in the comments and scorn that they show the President. I am glad that he is punching back. Good for him.
Fiorentina fans are like children
They can only just crying, shouting, complaining, bad-tempered without wanting to reflect themselves
What did they give for the club actually?
Only just bring worsen image to the public
So stupid.
Maybe Viola fans prefer it Milan style, you know, keep playing Vlahovic until his contract runs down and then see him move across to Juve 🙂 I understand their frustration, but I feel they’re barking at the wrong tree. Commisso did the best he could given the situation.
@John
They’d care soon enough if someone far worse came in to replace him.
These viola fans should have a really terrible owner take over the team like Thohir – imagine him watching every game at the Artemio Franchi – you’l never win a game at home
@I MISS MARCO BRANCA AT INTER I’m glad to see that you are finally back and insulting Inter at every opportunity you get. All because Juve seemed to make some good signings on paper which basically mean most of the signings if not all will flop since January transfers rarely works out. I wonder if you’ll still be insulting Inter when they start playing again and your team continue to scrap as many draws as possible.
Vlahovic would have gone to Juve anyway – as others here have pointed out. So Commisso did well to get so much for him.
The scandal here is the stadium – again. Why are the local and national authorities blocking modernisation? Are they really that myopic they can’t see the benefits a modern structure will bring; not just to the team but to the local area in which it is built.
If they held on to him and he went to Juve for free they would condemn him for that, can’t win. Dumb fans, its incredible they got that much for him.
The fans are being pathetic, Vlahovic had to go and he only wanted Juve. Fiorentina got an amazing amount of cash to ease the pain. At the same time, Rocco needs to be less sensitive and take his precious ego out of it.