Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis has announced that he plans to sell Bari once the new FIGC rules come into effect.
FIGC rules forbid club owners from possessing two clubs in the same professional division. This rule was enacted last year after Salernitana achieved promotion to the Italian topflight, forcing Lazio president Claudio Lotito to find a new owner for the club. In 2024 owners will be banned from being in charge of two clubs regardless, forcing De Laurentiis to act.
Speaking to DAZN, De Laurentiis confirmed that he plans to sell Bari in order to stay in charge of Napoli.
“Bari has interesting fans and my son Luigi is taking an interest in them, who have done a great job. There is a regulation that the FIGC has made that I absolutely do not agree with, UEFA allows a father and a son to have two clubs participating in the European cups.
“If this authoritarian decision of Gravina continues to exist, because he made it his own way, and we don’t win the various appeals that are in place, we’ll get over it and Bari will be sold. We’ll do all we can to bring it to Serie A, where they deserve to be because they have 1.2 million fans.
“There are many other clubs operating in Serie A that don’t have this number of fans, looking at the real stadium attendance bill Bari is the eighth biggest team in Italy.”
De Laurentiis picked up Bari ahead of the 2018-19 season, helping them restart following their bankruptcy. He guided them up to Serie C in their first season and now they’re pushing for Serie B.
The Italian film producer did the same thing with Napoli following their bankruptcy in 2004, helping them reach the heights of Serie A once again.
De Laurentiis annuncia: "Se la regola non dovesse cambiare, venderemo il Bari" https://t.co/sNZQbaNlwQ
— TUTTOmercatoWEB (@TuttoMercatoWeb) April 29, 2022