ROME, 3 January 2003 — Cash-strapped Serie A club Parma face the prospect of dismantling their promising young team as they come to terms with the bankruptcy of disgraced parent company Parmalat.
Italy’s largest food company and 98 percent owner of Parma is at the center of a fraud investigation following the discovery of a 10-13 billion euro hole in its accounts. Currently sixth in Italy’s first division and through to the third round of the UEFA Cup, Parma could go out of business unless they find a huge capital injection to cover their massive debts.
Last year the Emilia Romagna outfit lost 77 million euros ($97 million), but that figure would have been almost three times as much had it not been for generous state handouts under the government’s ‘Salva Calcio’ (Save Football) decree. The likelihood is that the two-time UEFA Cup winners will be forced to offload several of their best players to balance the books and keep the club afloat. Their most valuable asset is explosive 21-year-old Brazilian striker Adriano, 50 percent owned by Serie A rivals Inter Milan in one of Italy’s many complicated co-ownership deals. Inter have made no secret of their desire to fully own the powerful Brazil international, scorer of seven goals this season before being sidelined with a thigh strain in early November.
But they could face stiff opposition from big-spending Chelsea, bankrolled by the millions of Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich and for whom money is no object. The London-based English Premiership club are reported to be keen to reunite 20 million euro summer signing Adrian Mutu with his former strike partner who between them scored 33 league goals for Parma last season.
The English Premiership club are also said to be interested in signing Parma’s 23-year-old French goalkeeper Sebastien Frey as cover for Carlo Cudicini. Adriano is believed to be worth 40 million euros ($50.3 million), while Frey would probably fetch in the region of 14 million euros ($17.6 million).
Parma have already moved to ease their crippling wage bill by loaning out Japanese midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata to Serie A rivals Bologna. Other players in the reopened.
