In a few weeks’ time, Juventus should be crowned Italy champions despite a shock defeat to bottom-placed Parma.
Even great sides like Juve have their off-days and on Saturday Massimiliano Allegri’s team, shorn of some of their best talent, conceded their second defeat of the season.
The 1-0 upset to Parma should not jeopardise Juve’s title ambitions, albeit they have two tricky fixtures coming up.
On Saturday, Juventus host Lazio, now in second place in the standings after leapfrogging rivals Roma on Sunday, and the following weekend they play hosts to city neighbours Torino who are still in the race for a slot in the Europa League.
As for Parma, that of Saturday was their fifth success of the term – the second on the trot following the midweek 1-0 home win over Udinese. The back-to-back wins follow a valuable 1-1 draw against Inter at the San Siro.
Parma – the last Italian club to lift the Europa League in 1999 – were declared bankrupt on March 19, with debts estimated to be in the region of €86m.
As if this was not enough, Parma, who play their game in hand away at Genoa this evening, have also been docked three points for failure to pay their players on time.
Two accountants were appointed by the court recently to oversee the bankruptcy proceedings. Also, the court tasked Demetrio Albertini with the responsibility of assisting the club to get its financial position back in the black.
Parma, who were thumped by Juventus 7-0 in the corresponding first round fixture, have a mountain to climb to avoid the drop as they are currently 13 points short of safety in what has been a truly turbulent campaign for them.
Player exodus
Remarkably, the Parma players have not received any kind of payment all season. Last month, the Italian League had to intervene and allocate €5m so that the troubled club can play their remaining league fixtures this season.
Parma’s best players, the likes of Felipe, Antonio Cassano and Jonathan Biabiany, have become free agents and up-and-coming youngsters, like Jose Mauri (scorer of the only goal on Saturday) is likely to be transferred in summer.
Ironically, 18-year-old midfielder Mauri is reportedly to be on Juve’s radar.
The first signs of Parma’s financial woes date back to the end of last season. In fact, despite finishing sixth in the league standings they were not granted a UEFA licence due to unpaid taxes.
Eventually, it resulted that Parma were in deep trouble as Brescia-based businessman Tommaso Ghirardi, who had been at the helm since January 2007, handed his shares in the club to a Russian-Cypriot conglomerate in return for a notional fee of €1!
It was later discovered that Albanian oil tycoon Rezart Taci, who had made an attempt to purchase a majority stake in AC Milan in 2009, was the principal in-vestor. Taci later appointed 29-year-old compatriot Ermir Kodra as club president.
However, barely two weeks after becoming club president, Kodra stepped down as Parma changed hands again in the first week of February. Italian businessman Giampietro Manenti became the new owner.
Despite his promises, Manenti failed to provide the capital needed to keep the club afloat including his failure to pay the players by mid-February.
Manenti was later among a group of suspects arrested by police on charges of embezzlement and money-laundering.
Faced by such a calamitous situation, many would have simply thrown in the towel and quit. Ghirardi, Taci, Kodra, Felipe, Cassano and Biabiany did just that.
Roberto Donadoni and his players, however, want to finish the season with dignity.
That indeed is remarkable given that these days it has become customary for coaches and players to switch clubs and accept better offers. The Parma case demonstrates that playing for passion and not the lure of money and fame can also yield results.