Riccardo Silva is a businessman and entrepreneur who has built a global career in business sports. Founder of Silva International Investments, already protagonist in the TV rights market with MP & Silva, today he is also investor in Milan along with RedBird and president of Miami FC.
“One of my main business was MP & Silva, a global sports television distribution company, from football to NBA and NFL. We came to be among the top five operators in the world and sold the company in 2016 to a Chinese group. Since then I have developed Silva International Investments, my family office, through which I realize various investments. Among these there is also that in Milan: in 2022 I invested together with RedBird in the acquisition of the club, which is the team for which I have been rooting since I was born”.
How is your path between Italy and the United States born? I was born and raised in Milan. Then from 2008 to 2018 I lived in Miami, while from 2018 I moved to London. However, Miami has always remained for me a second home: I continue to spend three or four months a year. Right there I founded in 2015 the Miami Football Club, a team of the second American division. It is the second team of the city after Inter Miami in Messi, but we were born before them, so we are also “older”. Parallelly I carry forward several investments in sports and not only”.
Let’s talk about the Sports Performance Hub project: what exactly is it? It is a very ambitious project, similar in some ways to the IMG Academy of Tampa, which is a development of what was the Nick Bollettieri Academy of tennis and became a very important sports academy in the United States, with over 1500 students. With the SPH Academy we aim to do even better. It will rise in Homestead, south of Miami, on an area of about 92 acres. It includes a sports academy, a school, a sports center, a 10,000-seat stadium, a hotel and other related projects such as apartments.
Among the investors there are, in addition to me, important figures such as the former star NBA Manu Ginóbili and Juan Sebastián Verón, great player, among others, of Lazio, Inter and Manchester Utd, who for ten years has been president of the Estudiantes in Argentina, as well as several international entrepreneurs.
The Miami FC team will be inside the Academy, which will also be a boarding school, then a high school for students-athletes, who will have the opportunity to professionally practice their sport, with professional coaches and professional facilities. We will start with about 600 boys, it is a project that combines infrastructure, education and sport and that I think it can be very positive both from the entrepreneurial point of view and to the territory of South Florida.
Can we define it as a “modern fable” of sport, based on investments, courage, vision, for the benefit of young people and the territory? A bit of what is doing, in the professional sphere, the Como in Serie A.I absolutely agree, is precisely this spirit that guided us. Projects like that of Como 1907 show that, even in football, with vision and investments you can build a successful reality. It is never easy, because investing does not automatically guarantee results, but when there is a clear strategy and right skills, the results can arrive.
When do we see this project concretely implemented? The work has already begun on 2 March last. The development will take place for phases: the “horizontal” sports infrastructure, such as fields and Olympic pool, will be ready between one or two years. The most complex facilities, such as school, stadium and hotel, will take more time. I would say that within three or four years the project will be completed and fully operational, but some parts will come into operation already before.
How central will football be in this hub? Very. In recent years, since I moved to Miami in 2008, football has grown enormously in the United States, especially among young people. Today is one of the most followed sports, alongside basketball, football and baseball. In our academy we expect about 50% of students to be focused on football and 50% more on other sports. It will therefore be a structure strongly oriented to football, in line with the evolution of the American market.
Why did you choose Homestead for this project? Because it is an area of South Florida even less developed than others. It made no sense to build a sports academy in the center of Miami or in already established areas. At Homestead we found the ideal place and also a great support from the mayor and all the local authorities. It was a true “perfect marriage” between our project and the needs of the community.
What kind of relationship do you have with the territory? Very tight. We also provided scholarships for local students, about 5%, and the use of infrastructure by residents. The idea is to create a real synergy with the community, not only an isolated investment.
What is the goal for your Miami FC in the coming years? The American system is different from the European system: there are no promotions and retrocessions, the alloys are closed and access to the MLS requires very high investments. For this reason our main goal is not only the sport result, but above all the development of young people. We want to be a team that plays well, gets results and above all forms talents. In this sense, the Academy will be fundamental.
He often spoke of young people: as a passionate and investor of Milan, what is missing today at Italian football? In my view, in the last 10-20 years in Italy too much attention has been paid to the result, especially in the youth sectors. Coaches are judged on the basis of victories, even with children aged 8 or 10, when they should be first of all teachers. This leads to favour the most developed children physically, at the expense of individual technique. It is a mentality that limits the growth of talent. We should focus more on teaching and less on the result: youth coaches should not be judged on the basis of the results but on the basis of the development of individual players.
Let’s go to Milan: what is expected this season? I’ve always been a Milan fan, one of my first memories is the 1979 Scudetto. Today, even as an investor, I think RedBird did a great job, especially in bringing back balance in the accounts. I know that fans prefer models with great expenses, like the sheik that maybe, more than investing, “lost” hundreds of millions a year, but today football requires sustainability.
RedBird is an investment fund, which as such cannot afford to throw money and lose it, and has stabilized the accounts: we have accounts in draw for three years, which for a football team is important. Sports results remain fundamental, I say both as a fan and as an investor, and they must remain at the centre of a team’s goals. This year the results are good: thanks to the company, the coach, the players and of course thanks to the support of the fans, we returned to the levels that compete at Milan.
Of course, the thirty years of Berlusconi are a little unrepeatable, but Milan is a great team and it is necessary to review it at the top in the league and competitive in the Champions League with the biggest teams in Europe.
Modern football must also be a sustainable company. Absolutely. Today there are rules imposed by UEFA that prevent spending without control. We need economic discipline and supporters must take account of it. This does not exclude the goal of building competitive and winning teams.
We close with a personal question: what is your dream? I don’t have a specific dream, except to do well in all the projects I’m involved in. I hope that the Academy SPH will become a great success and can help so many young people grow, maybe even become champions. And as a fan of Milan, of course, the dream is to go back to winning trophies, maybe even in Europe. Champions? I’ve seen so many with Berlusconi, who knows that you don’t get another one in the future with RedBird..
L’articolo Riccardo Silva: “With the SPH Academy in Homestead we build a new vision that combines infrastructure, education and sport” comes from IlNewyorkese.
