Legendary Treble-winning President Massimo Moratti admits he ‘will not rule out’ returning to Inter after Suning lost the club to Oaktree, but warns ‘it is impossible to win with balanced accounts.’
The Zhang family failed to repay the €395m including interest loan, so the club was effectively repossessed by American fund Oaktree last week.
If they are looking for new investors, could the Moratti family be back at Inter?
“It wouldn’t be easy, but I will not rule it out. Maybe,” replied Massimo Moratti to magazine Oggi.
“My wife asks me every evening if I bought Inter back yet. I always have to find a new excuse to justify myself. Buying Inter is a big commitment, our children are all big fans. As a lad, I didn’t have the slightest thought of being President of Inter, then I changed my mind. So in future, who knows? We’ll see.”
The family has long been tied to the Nerazzurri, as his father Angelo was President of Inter from 1955 to 1968 during the Grande Inter era of coach Helenio Herrera, winning three Serie A titles, two European Cups and two Intercontinental Cups.
Massimo Moratti became President from February 1995 to January 2004, remained the owner, but took back the presidency from 2006 to 2013 until selling the club to Erick Thohir.
He won five Scudetti, four editions of the Coppa Italia, four Italian Supercups, the Champions League, UEFA Cup and Club World Cup, including the famous 2010 Treble.
Moratti admits football has changed
When he sold it to Indonesian businessman Thohir, it was because Moratti felt he could not sustain the growing costs of running a football club in the era of oil-rich states behind the scenes.
“Buying Inter and keeping it at the top has huge costs, a single businessman nowadays cannot do it,” he continued.
“Even Real Madrid are full of debts. It’s more difficult nowadays to have a President who is a fan, though it can work for smaller clubs.”
So far, Oaktree have said they intend to bring stability to Inter and are not looking to sell too quickly, but Moratti has concerns.
“Oaktree are certainly solid, but we’d have to see what their endgame is. The debts at Inter are so high that they cannot just leave it like that. And we’ve seen that it is impossible to win with balanced accounts.”