Napoli owners' lawyer says Rizzetta talks were around €2.25bn

Franco Gianni, who represented the club's owners, describes several weeks of negotiations with Matt Rizzetta's group at close to Aurelio De Laurentiis's asking price. He says the deal collapsed over when and how the money would be paid.

by Rosaria CimminoFriday 23 October, 12:18 CET· 2 hours ago

Napoli, il legale della società: «Con Rizzetta si trattava su 2,25-2,26 miliardi». Nessuna firma per tempi e modalità di pagamento — Grafica Arena Napoli

The documents in the talks between Napoli's owners and Matt Rizzetta's group put the club's value at €2.25bn, perhaps €2.26bn. This is the first time anyone from the club's side has said so.

The figure came from lawyer Franco Gianni, of the law firm Gianni & Origoni, in a radio interview. He represented the company that owns Napoli in its negotiations with Rizzetta and Underdog Global Partners.

"I represented the company that owns Napoli," Gianni said. "The negotiations lasted several weeks and provided for a payment in line with what President De Laurentiis had indicated. The negotiated figures referred to in the documents were about €2.260bn. Or €2.250bn. Certainly around that figure."

On why it did not go through, he said: "There was no agreement on the method of payment and the timing of payment." No contract was signed.

The background is already known. There was a meeting of less than an hour at the hotel de Bonart. According to reports in recent days, the consortium valued the club at €1.3bn, and the president held firm on his €2bn threshold.

Two versions that do not fit together

That is the problem. If the documents put the figure at around €2.25bn, above the threshold Aurelio De Laurentiis had set, the €1.3bn attributed to the consortium does not add up.

The president's own account does not fully hold up either. On the radio he had said "Napoli is not for sale". Of Rizzetta, he said: "I would sell it to a Neapolitan, not to an American." Yet his own lawyer describes several weeks of negotiations with an American group, with an agreed figure written into the documents. A club that is not for sale does not negotiate like that for weeks.

"There was no agreement on the method of payment and the timing of payment."

This is not a trial. The owners have every right to sell, and every right to negotiate. But supporters are entitled to one version of events, and for now there are at least two.

Gianni's words also leave several questions open. When did the talks take place? Is the matter closed for good, or only for now? And was the meeting at the de Bonart a fresh start, or the tail end of something already over?

Meanwhile, the football

The football has been pushed to the back pages this week. Napoli are ninth with 10 points after seven matches. They come into the weekend off a 1-0 defeat at Venezia and a nervy 4-3 against Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League.

Gasperini's Roma visit the Maradona on Saturday 24 October at 18:00 CET (17:00 UK, 12:00 ET). Roma are third on 17 points, seven ahead of Napoli. It is the second test the club has set for Massimiliano Allegri.

The club is deciding the coach's future one match at a time, and the future of the ownership is still far from clear. The team take the field on Saturday with both questions unresolved.