The club arriving from Cremona is ready to take its first official steps, with Trainotti and Carmenati in the club. Waiting for the moves of Matiasic, who has secured the PalaEur, but it is not yet known with what title: in recent days he was in the capital
Rome-1 and Rome-2. At the moment they are like Unknown-1 and Unknown-2 in the trials. Because there is absolutely nothing official about Roma’s return to Serie A at the moment. The only real news is dated May 12, included in a Fip press release: “The Federal Council, meeting in an extraordinary session and in web conference mode, examined the documentation produced by the Guerino Vanoli Basket Srl company to transfer its headquarters from Cremona to Rome. The Federal Council deemed the application to meet the requirements of merit, making its acceptance subject to compliance with the obligations and deadlines set out in the licensing manual for participation in the Serie A Championship 2026/2027”. End.
ex novo
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But Rome-1 and Rome-2 have been moving for several months. They don’t have an experience, so they arrive completely from scratch. We will talk about Roma-2 later, now let’s deal with Roma-1, i.e. the consortium of the “Nelsonians”, therefore Donnie Nelson, born Donn, 63 years old, son of Don who was the second coach with the most games won in the NBA. The interest of Nelson (who has acquired the sporting title of Cremona, the last signature to seal everything is missing, but it is pure formality) is on view NBA Europe, the American League project currently still with many clouds but which should start in a couple of seasons. Well, Nelson is busy, together with an old acquaintance of our championship like Rimantas Kaukenas, with the construction of the team for next season, naturally starting from the coach: the coach identified is Sasha Djordjevic, who would thus return to coaching a club team after the 2020-21 championship with Virtus Bologna and the Turkish title the following year with Fenerbahce, which was followed by the leadership of the Chinese national team. The project of the American consortium should finally be ready to reveal itself to the media: if so far a precise date has not been made official it is to try to get the yes of one of the strong partners of the company being formed, Luka Doncic, currently in his Slovenia for family commitments: he would like to make a trip to Rome, so dear to him, to put his face on it as a guarantee of a project that we said was long-term. Among other things, it is whispered that it was Doncic himself who gave the approval for the choice of Djordievic, while the entry of Salvatore Trainotti, currently general manager of the men’s national team, would seem to be a done deal in the club. Gigi Datome will not be there, who declined the offers received to continue dedicating himself totally to his existing commitments with the FIP. Roma-1 (which also has Roberto Carmenati, historic scout of Dallas, Doncic’s first NBA team in the working group) will have as its home the sports hall in Viale Tiziano, occupied by the Serie B club which is fighting for promotion to A-2 in the playoffs (with passionate fans who always fill the historic building), waiting to move to the Centrale del Foro Italico once the coverage of the facility is completed, scheduled for the end of summer 2028. Nelson had made an offer to the Eur to obtain the use of the Palaeur, but it turned out – after a short tender – too low compared to that of the consortium headed by Paul Matiasic.
dilemma
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And here Roma-2 comes into the picture. The American lawyer (owner of Trieste) was on Monday in the capital, which has now almost become his second home, to define the latest agreements also on behalf of Greenwich Advisory & Company, an investment banking boutique with specialized skills and deep experience in the global professional sports sector. Having effectively secured the use of the Palaeur, the club that will lose the Serie A team – as happened with Cremona – is still missing to transfer the title to the capital. At the beginning it should have been Trieste itself, then in the end, thanks above all to the intervention of local politics, the team will continue to play in Serie A. So who will this club be that would sell to Roma-2? The negotiation, kept very secret, is evidently likely to be restricted to a couple of clubs. “Next year I will fight for the scudetto in Rome,” Matiasic has repeated to several people recently. Not all Serie A clubs are “attackable” (an attempt was also made with the newly promoted Scafati, which was unsuccessful), in the end the hypotheses are narrowed down to a couple, one more than another. Let’s avoid naming names so as not to trigger panic, it wouldn’t even be right if we don’t have certainties. Matiasic has those. We wait. Because the cards will now have to be revealed. As soon as possible.
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