Diego Della Valle reveals he and his brother sold Fiorentina to Rocco Commisso not because he was the highest bidder, but they wanted ‘people with financial solidity’ to take over the club.
They revitalised the Viola following bankruptcy in 2001 under Vittorio Cecchi Gori, helping them climb back up from Serie D to the top flight.
However, with protests growing that they were unable to invest more, they sold up to Italian-American investor Commisso in the summer of 2019.
Della Valle brothers chose Commisso for Fiorentina future
“At that time, my brother Andrea was so upset, but I think he made the right decision by giving the club to people with financial solidity,” Diego Della Valle told Tuttomercatoweb.
“Our problem was finding someone who could guarantee a future to Fiorentina and we succeeded in that, also helping him by handing over a very good team.”
In the Commisso era, the Viola have reached the Conference League Final for two years running, as well as the Coppa Italia Final in 2023.
“We still watch Fiorentina every weekend, it’s a pity that the Finals did not bring trophies, but there is still good work being done. I think with a little more time, the trophies will be brought home too.”
Now Commisso is in a legal tussle with the local council to get the Stadio Artemio Franchi rebuilt, another issue that goes back many years to his predecessor.
“That was one of our regrets, even if at the end of the day the council did all it could back then. We had tried to build a training centre behind the stadium, but we saw the Viola Park that Commisso put up and it seems beautiful,” concluded Della Valle.
Viola Park is a state of the art new training centre outside of Florence, a project so vast that the heads of UEFA were invited to its inauguration.