ilNewyorkese’s in-depth look at American ownership in Italian soccer continues. We heard from Walter Sabatini, an experienced Italian executive who worked for Roma from 2011 to 2017 under the leadership of the American Raptor Fund, led by James Pallotta. We spoke with Sabatini about his personal experience and the situation of American ownership today, with a focus on AC Milan and Roma.
You have worked in Rome with American ownership, under the chairmanship of James Pallotta. To date many American properties have landed in Italy.
“The American ownership of Roma represented by Pallotta I could call the most European, Italian, of those that came after: Pallotta immediately entered the context, wanted to live among the people, understood the problems and if he did not understand them he had them explained to him. Years later I can say that Pallotta was an American president but very close to Italian culture and European soccer.”
Yet I remember Pallotta being blamed at the time for never being in Rome and delegating so much…
“Pallotta delegated but he could afford it because he had executives of great sensitivity and knowledge, including me. He often came to Rome and also met often with the fans. He was an important president. At that time I also underestimated him a bit but he never opposed market operations, he never asked for things that could not be done, he always defended the coaches and managers so he was a very good president.”
Do you think you were more protected as a manager than the managers of two companies under American ownership, Milan and Roma, are today?
“I was very respected and my autonomy was very respected, in that sense I was very lucky, very lucky. Today it’s not that sports directors are not being protected: they have cancelled them. The new American properties or American funds don’t want the sporting director anymore: they want to do them with their scouting that they bring in. They want to step in and pick and choose, not understanding that the role and culture of the sporting director does not end with taking players or reselling them. These are the most immediate aspects, the more delicate things a sporting director does during the week mediating the feelings of an entire locker room, the moods, working on the coach’s head. There are so many things a sports director does…”
Ivan Zazzaroni told our microphones that the winning models of American ownership in Italy today are those in which management has been entrusted to Italian managers, such as Atalanta and Inter. Does Walter Sabatini also think this is the way?
“This would be the most advisable path. I’ll give you an example: Mauro Baldissoni has been a great general manager of Roma, all the Friedkins needed to do was call him and all the troubles that have happened this year in the technical management of the team would not be there. Just lean on the right people, it’s not like they have to endow them with superpowers, taking advantage of the expertise and preparation that come from the life and experience in sports of these people.
Leaning on someone like that is something the Friedkins didn’t do, and I’m sure it was a mistake.”
What is striking today about the modus operandi of American properties in Italy is that sometimes they seem downright “ruthless”…
“It is so, because they apply in soccer the corporate criteria of Wall Street. They pick you up and have someone walk you to the door, without even giving you time to empty the office. It is part of their way of living and interpreting work. Italian soccer also has them to thank because they brought hundreds of millions into the Serie A coffers, so they didn’t just do bad things. The Friedkins for example have made a memorable investment because I think they have spent something like a billion over time on Roma, and they should be given credit for that.”
Walter Sabatini sulla panchina della Roma durante il match di Serie A tra Roma e Inter nella stagione 2017/2018 | via Shutterstock
However, it is a fact that today’s owners of Roma and Milan, Friedkin and Cardinale, are not loved by the fans.
“It is no secret that fans want to feel a sense of participation: an evolved sensibility grasps this need, especially in Rome. The teams do not belong to the properties but to the people, and in Rome the people love the team, so much so that the Olimpico sells out every game. But this privilege has not been taken full advantage of, because the participation, the joy and the enthusiasm of the fans should also be channeled, instead this has not happened at either Roma or Milan. Regarding Roma I have full title to express an opinion because it is an environment I know, I am a localized witness living in Rome for more than 20 years and having worked here, while for Milan I can speak as an outside spectator. But what they did at Milan with Fonseca seems to me a real disgrace in soccer. To have sent the coach to do post-match interviews after Milan-Roma and then to inform him of his exoneration practically in the stadium parking lot an unmentionable thing: I must say that I am glad that I did not have to experience this situation as a manager, because even physical presence becomes embarrassing when barbaric decisions are made. This is a barbaric decision, really.”
Interesting theme he launches: can an executive, who is an intermediary between ownership and everything else, experience moments of embarrassment when confronted with a modus operandi he does not agree with?
“I don’t experience any embarrassment because if I don’t agree with the thing I am asked to broadcast I refuse to broadcast it and resign. Of course by doing so you pay the bill as I have done throughout my career, because resignation is never free, it has a significant cost…”
I remember that with Pallotta, she was the one who decided to break off the relationship….
“I decided because Pallotta had asked Franco Baldini to be his personal adviser and there is no sporting director who can accept a solution like this: you are a DS and you fight against the whole world and your president has his own personal adviser…So what is the sporting director for? Let me be clear, there is no fault on Baldini’s part, he had only accepted an offer, but when it happened I thanked him and left.”
So somehow, if you’ll pardon the joke, in the end even the far-sighted Pallotta “played American” by forcing her to resign in that unacceptable situation…
“It was a situation that an athletic director could in no way accept but maybe he didn’t put that into consideration, because I know that when I announced that I was leaving he was very regretful. But I really couldn’t do otherwise.”
American properties make extensive use of the software and algorithms that she dislikes so much.
“I don’t love them but I use them. I don’t love them to choose players but they are a very important compendium, they can give support to a choice, they represent certainties when they express irrefutable data, so using software in soccer is not entirely wrong. It is rather the use of them that is wrong. But I am not a man who only looks behind: I look behind sometimes but without too much nostalgia, it is essential to always look ahead.”
Looking ahead, on Sunday Roma and Lazio will take the field in the Capitoline derby, you who have been manager of both teams what match do you expect?
“The derby is always derby, needless to clarify the importance of such a match. What I can say is that right now the result of the Rome derby will determine important effects. Lazio is living a magical moment and losing the derby would be a very disappointing blow for the entire Lazio population, in light of the splendid championship that the biancocelesti are playing: a defeat would risk being a brake for a team that is launched. As far as Roma is concerned, the discourse is very different because a negative result would affect the standings in a very dangerous way, because Roma has to look over its shoulder: I am sorry to have to say this but it is an arithmetical matter. Roma has to watch its back and has to live and face the derby for the result.”
Doesn’t talking about Roma being in danger of going to Serie B seem like a rhetorical exercise to you? In light of the value of the roster I mean, compared to the competitors fighting not to relegate. For you, is it a real risk?
“But soccer is a tragedy, I have also written this, and as a tragedy it sometimes causes irreparable damage. I don’t think either, evaluating the absolute value of the teams, that Roma can risk it however sometimes matches are lost in a totally unpredictable way, by an episode, a corner kick, an own goal, a situation that cannot be controlled. So let’s hope.
Article Sabatini: “Italian soccer and American ownership, between opportunity and barbarism” comes from TheNewyorker.
