The former owner of the club who was excluded in 2021 due to tax non-compliance: “Disappeared due to Covid, no one helped us. I felt useless, I even attempted suicide. Pellissier’s new Chievo? I’d have a coffee with him, if he offered me a role I’d have to think about it”
Passion is not blind, it is visionary. Stendhal said it and Luca Campedelli certainly shares it, thinking back to his greatest passion. Chievo. Which was her family’s team, then it became everyone’s team because she was the protagonist of a wonderful story. And finally it was nobody’s team because it disappeared. Better yet, killed, according to the reconstruction that Campedelli entrusted to his revisitation of that era with the emblematic title: “Chievo, a perfect crime”. Beyond the pain, however, the passion remains: “I may be crazy, but I still dream of bringing ‘my’ Chievo back to life. For me it’s an illness. I fell in love with football when I was 3 years old and this sport gave me the opportunity to spend more time with my father and appreciate his humanity even more.”
Campedelli, why did you decide to tell your version after six years of silence?
“Because it was right to re-establish the truth after so many falsehoods. I owed it to my father, without whom Chievo would never have existed, to my family, to myself and to the history of the club.”
Was it really a perfect crime?
“Yes, because we didn’t have the chance to reply. Nobody wanted to take the victim’s side or ensure that justice went deeper into the matter. The institutions limited themselves to saying that Chievo had not challenged the FIGC regulations, but nobody wanted to see that the State during the Covid period had made an institutional rule which effectively made the club not eligible for the championship. Without Covid, Chievo would still be alive because we didn’t have economic problems, the players’ salaries had all been paid regularly. Chievo it was canceled in seven days, when in September 2020 a device was issued that blocked all installment payments. If I had had more time, I would certainly have found a way, but no one listened to me and gave me a hand.”
Have you ever wondered what mistakes you made?
“Many times. The biggest was not having secured Chievo before being suspended from the office of president because he was accused in the Forlì trial for capital gains. I would have had to go to the tax office and pay the entire tax bill to avoid having to pay it in instalments. I want to point out that I was acquitted for the capital gains, the two-year sentence is for false accounting and I have already appealed.”
What has he done in recent years?
“I followed lawyers and dedicated myself to sports fencing. Until last year I followed a team of disabled kids, I accompanied them to training and matches. Initially they trained at Bottagisio, which after the bankruptcy of Chievo ended up at auction and was bought by Verona. A dirty thing: as if Milan bought Appiano Gentile. I would never have done it.”
What was the hardest moment?
“November 2021, when I attempted suicide. I felt like a burden, carrying all the guilt of the world. I didn’t see any way out. I had lost every shred of hope, now I’ve found it a little. Football is my life, but now I prefer amateur football, not polluted by technology. I’ve only been to see Monza a few times. I also stopped following Inter, the team I supported: since Moratti has been gone he has lost the magic. He was one of the few, together with Preziosi, to stay close to me.”
Which Chievo match has remained in your heart?
“Milan-Chievo 3-2: it was the first time at San Siro, apart from Lupatelli, D’Angelo and D’Anna we were all in the opponent’s half of the field. We played very well, we scored three goals, they scored one and yet we lost. I still have to understand why…”.
Is there a great champion who was going to buy? “Two. In 2002 Drogba was already with Chievo: the only condition was the sale of Eriberto and Manfredini, which unfortunately fell through. In 2006 Cavani trained with us, but according to Sartori and some members of the staff it wasn’t worth the expense of 500,000 euros. Giovanni is one of the top five European managers, but since he left, his behavior made me understand that he didn’t care for Chievo. When he could have helped us he entrenched himself behind society.”
If Pellissier called you to offer you a role in the new Chievo, what would you reply?
“I would gladly have a coffee with Sergio despite the misunderstandings of the last period. I would be happy if he called me, I would have to think about everything else. The new team is called Chievo, but for me it remains something else. Chievo is not just the brand: it is the cups, the shirts I designed, the people who worked with me. I struggle to identify the Chievo of today with mine: that was football for the sake of it, without other interests, with a president who suffered for the team. We didn’t lift any trophies, but we won many Scirea Cups and Fair Play Cups: for me they are worth a lot and in fact I bought them back when they were auctioned.
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