Rizzetta cuts Napoli bid to €1.3bn as De Laurentiis meets the Apontes

The American consortium will no longer go past the €2bn that was turned down in March. In Geneva, the president met the Aponte family twice, and the team's slump is now weighing on the talks.

by Rosaria CimminoWednesday 28 October, 11:21 CET· 2 hours ago

Aurelio De Laurentiis — Foto: Presidenza della Repubblica · Attribution

The gap is €700m. Aurelio De Laurentiis turned down €2bn in March. The US consortium led by Matt Rizzetta has now settled on €1.3bn.

After making their approach in the summer, the Americans are no longer willing to go above the figure rejected in the spring. They lowered their offer, and last week relations between the two sides went cold.

The president's answer came from Geneva. He met the Aponte family twice there, once over lunch and once over dinner. We had already reported the stated purpose of the meeting at MSC's headquarters: a 70,000-seat stadium at San Giovanni a Teduccio. What is new is that the day in Switzerland is now also being read as a counter-move against Rizzetta.

The picture taking shape is a change of ownership in the coming years, but to the Aponte family rather than to the United States. That remains a rumour, not an agreement, and it should be treated as one.

For us, the hardest part is something else. De Laurentiis is said to have realised that he can no longer wait, because the team's crisis is weakening his position as a seller. To put it plainly, tenth place with 11 points after eight matches, the worst start since 2009-10, no longer hurts only in the table. It hurts the price too.

The pitch and the negotiation now tell the same story.

Two statements and three figures

Only days earlier the president was saying "Napoli is not for sale". Then it became "for the moment I have not decided to sell". The second statement leaves open a door that the first one closed.

"Napoli is not for sale"

We are not putting his intentions on trial. De Laurentiis is the owner and has every right to choose his timing. But in the space of a week the figures around Napoli have kept moving: €2.2bn under discussion, then talks at €2.25-2.26bn, and now €1.3bn. We were already asking where Underdog Global Partners' money came from. The lower bid does not answer that question. It adds another one: which of the president's two statements holds now?

There is also a downside we do not like. If every point dropped pushes the offer down, Napoli's season becomes a variable in a game being played in Geneva and across the Atlantic. This comes as the fans turn on Allegri, the defence has conceded 17 goals in 11 matches, and Badiashile and Spinazzola are injured. The risk is that the debate about ownership drowns out the debate about the football, or worse, starts to shape it. Those who build and run the club have to show that the team comes first, not the valuation.

Napoli face Juric's Monza at the U-Power Stadium on Wednesday 28 October at 20:45 CET (19:45 UK, 15:45 ET). Monza are 15th with 7 points. Landucci will be on the bench in place of the suspended Allegri. Fourth place, the stated target, is nine points away, held by Como on 20.

Napoli travel to Juventus in Turin on Sunday 1 November, then to Porto in the Champions League on Wednesday 4 November. From the Monza match onwards, every result counts in the negotiation as well.