Massimo Zanetti does not cede Virtus Bologna to Israelis

The words of Massimo Zanetti

Massimo Zanetti from the stage of the Giffoni Film Festival denied rumors of an imminent sale of the majority stake in Virtus Bologna to the consortium led by Israeli businessman Ori Allon. "It è not true. I am staying there" and I am not leaving"

"The newspapers invented this stuff with the Israelis but it è not soè – he added. Now the first games we will do at the’Unipol Arena and then we will make the new arena ready in 2026, twelve thousand seats. So until 2026 I stay there. Of course, I also tell the Bologna fans that I am not immortal".

"We have been talking about the arena project since 2019, and with the City Council we have had many press conferences. I have said several times that if we could not have done it in Bologna, we would have done it in Castel San Pietro. Lì they almost made me do it for free and Bologna, a metropolitan city, kept slowing down. I said 'I’ll do it in Bologna' and this thing (not only a provocation but there’was also a project) helped a little bit to stir the pot, because’then they made the implementing decrees".

"We have more fans than some soccer teams: Fiorentina, Genoa and Bologna are around 350-500 thousand fans; Virtus has more than a million fans. Milan has everything, è a great city, but it è not that it is very nice. Bologna è more likeable, so it è has many fans. The new arena also allows us to improve the brand penetration capacity, we can make supermarket, restaurant, shopping center", he concluded.