Virtus Bologna minority shareolders: From a business point of view, I am calm

Virtus Bologna present Will Clyburn to the press. For the first time, minority shareholder Carlo Gherardi takes centre stage, rather than Massimo Zanetti, major shareholder and Virtus Bologna’s president. Gherardi is joined by CEO Luca Baraldi, GM Paolo Ronci and, of course, the former Darussafaka, CSKA and Anadolu Efes forward.

The event will take place at Crif (Centrale Rischi Finanziari S.p.A), of which Carlo Gherardi is the founder and president. And it is he who anticipates the questions from the press: “Virtus is solid. We have been able to carry out this acquisition market with the resources we have.

I am happy with the team and calm about what the season will bring. From a business point of view, I am calm”.

On his shareholding: “We went up to 45% because we had to help with the championship and the EuroLeague. But we are fine with 45%, we have no intention of increasing it, we just want to help as much as we can’.

And on the negotiations with the Israelis in the summer: I admit that Dr Zanetti can do what he wants in terms of relations with the team and with me, but I saw this negotiation start from zero and go up to 200km/h in one day. I didn’t understand it. The contours were not clear to me, so I simply signalled to Dr Zanetti that he should evaluate it properly”.

He reiterated that there is no handover with Massimo Zanetti: “Nothing is going on. We have tried to help and support. Virtus has the resources and the team to face the season. We are economically and financially viable, but nobody knows what will happen. Let’s see if we can win first”.