Fiorentina director general Andrea Rogg says the Viola are awaiting FIFA’s verdict on the Mohamed Salah controversy.
The Egyptian winger spent the second half of last season on loan with the Viola, with the option to extend the deal.
The Tuscan side duly did so, but Salah vetoed the move, eventually joining Roma. Club and player are now in dispute over whether the veto stuck to the terms of the agreement.
“Today, Salah is a Roma player on a temporary transfer,” Rogg explained at a Press conference to introduce Jakub Błaszczykowski.
Fiorentina director general Andrea Rogg says the Viola are awaiting FIFA’s verdict on the Mohamed Salah controversy.
The Egyptian winger spent the second half of last season on loan with the Viola, with the option to extend the deal.
The Tuscan side duly did so, but Salah vetoed the move, eventually joining Roma. Club and player are now in dispute over whether the veto stuck to the terms of the agreement.
“Today, Salah is a Roma player on a temporary transfer,” Rogg explained at a Press conference to introduce Jakub Błaszczykowski.
“At the end of the year, FIFA will make a ruling, and will side with us or with the player.
“If they back us? The player will be punished with a ban, and there will be compensation for us due to his refusal to play for us.”
Rogg also defended the Viola, after accusations from their fans that the board and owning Della Valle family are not ambitious enough in their goals.
“I’m sad, because everyone at this club works very hard to make the fans happy, to see these kind of banners makes me sad, but that’s what happens in any strong love affair, sometimes there can be a bit of an overreaction.
“I think these same people have been happy with the past few seasons, and the results we’ve achieved.
“Our wage bill has been reduced by 17 per cent, which is a long way from the 30 or 40 per cent that I’ve heard some people talking about.
“They should consider the contract renewals we’ve given to the likes of [Khouma] Babacar, [Federico] Bernardeschi, [Pape Moussa] Diakhate, [Cedric] Gondo and a lot of other young players on loan in Serie B.
“We’ve renewed the contracts of a lot of players whose deals were almost up, and we had offers from other teams. The club has made a significant effort to keep them.
“A lot of players have left, but they’ve been replaced by top international players like [Mario] Suarez and Błaszczykowski.
“As far as I know, there are no plans to sell the club. I don’t know if any offers have been received, but certainly not since I came here.
“The numbers speak for themselves on the desire of the Della Valle family to invest – for Financial Fair Play we should have a wage bill of €45m, instead it’s around €60m.
“There’s a lot of passion on the part of the owners to fight for important objectives, the numbers speak for themselves.
“Today Fiorentina has the seventh-largest wage bill in Italy, and we’re seventh or eighth in terms of revenue from TV rights. We want to continue as we have been to get into Europe.
“We have to build synergy with the city of Florence, and exploit tourism.
“We also need to get our stadium project off the ground, and we’re working closely with the city council. We’re confident, and we hope to get some feedback by the end of the year.
“To raise revenue will also take good marketing, but we can’t crack €100m through marketing alone. We need matchday revenue, but also profits on players.
“We’ve invested heavily in our scouting network thanks to Valentino Angeloni, who is building a network of scouts who we didn’t have before.
“We have to find players, then sell them on so it’s self-financing.”