Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani part of bid to save Italian side Sampdoria - The Athletic 21/5/23
By James Horncastle
Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani is part of a bid to rescue
Sampdoria from financial oblivion.
Gestio Capital, an asset management fund of which Radrizzani
is a part, presented a bid for the recently-relegated Italian club on Friday.
“On Friday we sent a binding offer to take over Sampdoria,”
the CEO of Gestio Capital, Matteo Manfredi, told Genoa newspaper Il Secolo XIX.
“We found an agreement with the banks yesterday for the full payment of all
their debts.
“In addition to this, we’re ready to invest €55million
(£47.8m; $59.5m) immediately to rescue and relaunch Samp. Another €20m is
already available. In addition, there are a number of investors from
institutionalised capital who are looking at the project and share an interest
in joining us.”
A delegation from Gestio Capital was in Genoa earlier this
week to meet the mayor. It has also been in contact with Genoa’s owners, 777
Partners.
If a deal is done quickly, Samp should be able to pay the
€13.5million due in wages for the past three months.
The deadline for that payment is May 30. Missing it would
carry a four-point penalty to be served at the beginning of next season.
Avoiding bankruptcy will allow Samp to register for Serie B
rather than have to start over at the bottom of the Italian football pyramid.
Radrizzani has been the majority shareholder of Leeds since
2017 but 49ers Enterprises, the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers and
minority shareholder at Elland Road, holds an option to buy him out, in full,
in January 2024 in a deal that would value Leeds at close to £500million
($598m).
49ers Enterprises, though, decided to try and bring forward
the timing of its buyout by attempting to conclude it this season. But the
threat of Leeds’ Premier League relegation has complicated everything because the
deal — as it was originally proposed and at the level of price Radrizzani
wanted — was contingent on Leeds staying up.
