De Laurentiis says Rizzetta's €2bn Napoli bid started on the wrong foot

"A year ago Rizzetta's group asked me for a meeting. He introduced me to a couple of funds that wanted to buy the club. To test them, I asked for a meeting between our legal teams." That is how Aurelio De Laurentiis began his account of his dealings with Matt Rizzetta, in a 16-minute interview with Radio Kiss Kiss.

We had already reported his line that Napoli is not for sale. What is new is his open account of the past few days. "Rizzetta asked me if he could come to the stadium the other evening. Why shouldn't I have hosted him?" He has also accepted an invitation to the basketball arena: "I played basketball as a boy, I'll go. And when he asked me about the club again, I stopped him straight away."

Rizzetta's side is pressing on. The head of Napoli Basketball now represents three different funds interested in investing in Naples. One of them, Ariel Investments, sent two of its members to the Maradona last season. His company, Underdog Global Partners, also includes the Italian-American Joe Greco and the Italian-Canadian Angelo Pasto. Pasto is already in football at Campobasso, a club the group will try to sell to the highest bidder in the coming months. The aim is still a multi-sport club. But the two sides are far apart on price: De Laurentiis values Napoli at about €2bn, the Americans at a little over €1bn.

The stadium is the real battle

That could change if the deal included building permits for Qualiano, the planned site of a training centre, or for Napoli Est, where a stadium would go. Here the two men want completely different things. "I want to build the stadium and it will be a big commitment. Rizzetta would accept the Maradona. I would turn the Maradona into a big green park."

The funds would be happy to stay at Fuorigrotta, the district where the Maradona stands. Recent spending ahead of Euro 2032 and the city council's wish to open the ground to private investment point that way, and Rizzetta has very good relations with Manfredi. In our view this is the real gap, more than the price: two opposite ideas of where Napoli should play. A decision on the Q8 site at San Giovanni a Teduccio is expected by December.

"Matt is a person I respect, he is a man of action, he could hardly coexist with someone like me, who is not used to sharing decisions except with my closest collaborators."

Rizzetta joining the board is very hard to picture, and De Laurentiis knows it. Yet in the same interview he did not rule out selling: "The Arabs offered me €3.5bn. But if I were to sell in two, three or four years, I would prefer to sell to someone from Naples." The door is closed for now, not for ever. A negotiation that began a year ago has only reached half-time.

On the team he said little: "Let's stay calm and get the injured players back. We have Allegri, who has experience. At the first difficulties we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater." Calling them "the first difficulties" seems generous. After seven matches Napoli are tenth on 10 points, with three defeats, nine behind Inter and Lazio. The club itself tied Allegri's future to two tests: Bodø/Glimt, won 4-3 while conceding three, and Roma. On the eve of the second, the president talked far more about ownership than about the team.

Gasperini's Roma, third on 17 points, visit the Maradona on Saturday 24 October at 18:00 CET (17:00 UK, 12:00 ET). That is where we will see whether the calm the president asked for has anything to rest on.