Parma team manager Sandro Melli says the club is ‘like the Titanic’ and reveals problems stretch back further than this season.
The Ducali are at risk of bankruptcy, with players having to wash their kits at home, and furniture from the dressing room being auctioned off.
“I’ve realised that we were on the Titanic,” Melli told Corriere dello Sport.
Parma team manager Sandro Melli says the club is ‘like the Titanic’ and reveals problems stretch back further than this season.
The Ducali are at risk of bankruptcy, with players having to wash their kits at home, and furniture from the dressing room being auctioned off.
“I’ve realised that we were on the Titanic,” Melli told Corriere dello Sport.
“Above deck it’s all first-class, beautiful, shiny, with people dancing, like [former President Tommaso] Ghirardi and [CEO Pietro] Leonardi. But then there’s the second level, the third.
“I thought we’d sink with the first obstacle we hit. The iceberg was the UEFA licence. Do you remember what happened to the Titanic?
“Those in first class were saved, those below were left to die. And obviously the captain, the one with the beard, goes down with his ship. Who’s the captain here? Donadoni of course.
“Since November 15, football has been over for Parma. Ever since Ghirardi came to tell us he wouldn’t be spending a penny on the club, we’ve no longer talked about football.
“The team went onto the field, but their heads weren’t there. You can’t win a game under those circumstances.
“I hope they [the new board] pay the people that work for them, I’m not interested in the rest.
“If I were Ghirardi, I would think about the hundreds of people who are ruined, and don’t know how to pay the mortgage, or their rent.
“I last had a salary in July, just the net amount, like Donadoni and the team. My wife [who works in the legal department of the club] hasn’t been paid since December 2013.
“Since last year, I could see that Parma were buying seven, eight, ten players every day, with little or no technical ability.
“That was something strange, that I couldn’t understand. That’s when I realised there was no way out.
“Everyone had moved to Parma, they were eating in popular restaurants every day, at Parma’s expense.”
Melli also alleges that club employees have paid for things out of their own pocket over the years.
“A few years ago, Ghirardi asked me to lend him €100,000 to pay a bonus that he promised to the team. It took three years to pay me back, and without even a thank you.
“At Parma nobody ever said: there is no money. They always talked of a liquidity problem. I, in my ignorance, never understood.
“Ghirardi and Leonardi would invoice €700,000-€800,000 in cash, yet there wasn’t €50 to get the vans out of the warehouse.
“That started in [Franco] Colomba’s year [2011-12], they took the fuel cards away and we had to stump up the money for petrol. Then getting reimbursed became more and more complicated.
“Whenever there was a deadline, there’d be a postponement. When they had to pay the players, they’d call them in and ask them to spread it over their contract.
“They’d take less, but for a year or two more. So the rope got a little bit longer, but sooner or later someone would be hanged.
“I know that Donadoni has plugged the occasional gap – €1000 here, €500 there…
“I just hope that the creditors can be paid, at least in part, we can save the sporting identity and get back some of the dignity which has been taken from us.
“I’m sorry for saying what I’ve said, maybe it’s not the right time. But I’ve kept everything inside for two years and I can’t take it anymore.”