Brescia denounces Reggina for debts: Cellino wants repechage in Serie B

Hard attack by Brescia against Reggina. Received the relegation after the playout lost against Cosenza – with 3-0 at the table in the second leg and two games behind closed doors next season – Massimo Cellino’s club does not give up and launches itself against Felice Saladini’s club, which on Friday 9 June saw the hearing in the Court of Reggio Calabria for the approval of the debt restructuring plan: Brescia itself was admitted to the hearing. An unprecedented story in the world of football (at least in numbers) and which has already had repercussions on the championship (5 penalty points for the Calabrian club, then eliminated in the playoffs). But now the level of confrontation is rising, because Brescia publicly contests the plan with a complaint sent to the Court itself, to the Judicial Commissioner and to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Reggio Calabria, as well as to the ministers Nordio, Giorgetti and Abodi, up to Malagò, Gravina and Balata and Covisoc.

The reason for the “war”

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Cellino commissioned a well-known Milanese firm to verify the numbers presented in the plan and, according to the report, a detailed notice of opposition was drawn up, a complaint which highlights the irregularities that would have emerged from the analysis, so as to assume that the plan and the report of the independent professional who accompanied him are based “on factual assumptions and seriously incorrect and completely unproven numerical data, from which the non-feasibility of the plan derives”, adding that “it is burdened by macroscopic regulatory violations”. Why did Brescia unleash this war? Simple: without the approval of the plan, Reggina’s registration in the next championship would be at great risk and therefore its place (ranking in hand) would go to the Lombard club. But that would possibly be a later step. Now there is a tussle in the Court, while for registration you have to wait for the deadline of 20 June. The professionals appointed by Brescia disputed many numbers: starting from the TV rights and the contributions of the League, which given the Helbiz flop will be at least 300 thousand euros lower; the footballer Canotto is mentioned, for whom the obligation to buy from Frosinone for 450 thousand euros is triggered on 1 July (operation not mentioned in the plan); there is talk of the sale of a player for 2 million euros “without any feedback” on the market.

The inconsistencies

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Among the inconsistencies reported between the independent professional’s report and the plan, there are different numbers in at least five cases explaining that “these differences prevent us from being able to attribute an overall judgment of truthfulness and feasibility”. Not only. The Brescia professionals dispute sponsorships and stadium receipts (box office and season tickets) expected to increase by Reggina for next season “in the light of the announced downsizing of the first team squad” and above all point out the non-feasibility of the plan in relation to the “unequivocal inability of the majority shareholder (the company Enjoy srl, ed) to pay Reggina the amount of 8 million” as proposed by the Calabrian club, also citing other companies referable to Saladini. The complaint ends with the finding of other shortcomings, including an “incorrect accounting entry” in relations with Lega B, quantified by Reggina with a credit and which instead would be “a debt of 799,831 euros”. Dulcis in fundo, the agreements with creditors: starting from the Revenue Agency, which opposed the write-off of 95% of the debt which in total (including other suppliers) is 15.7 million, destined in case of homologous to become about 917 thousand.