Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon has expressed his sympathy for cash-strapped former club Parma, who will face a bankruptcy hearing next month after failing to pay players’ salaries all season.
Basement side Parma are so hard up they were unable to pay stadium stewards last week, leading to the postponement of their home Serie A fixture against Udinese.
The club has already been docked a point by the league for failing to pay salaries to players since July last year and a question mark still hangs over their trip to Genoa this weekend.
Buffon, who spent several years with Parma during their 1990s heyday when they won two UEFA Cups and finished second in Serie A, posted a message on his Facebook page which said: “I’m reading more and more surreal news every day about Parma.”
“For what it counts, I’d like to express my full solidarity with everyone who works at the club,” he wrote.
Officials from Serie A and the Italian Football Federation have pledged to help Parma get out of the mire, but the club could be declared bankrupt by a Parma tribunal when it convenes on March 19.
Meanwhile, fans — and rival club Genoa — have promised to help this weekend’s fixture go ahead.
A section of Parma’s supporters say they will pay for a bus to take the team to Genoa, while reports in Italy said Genoa will pay the team’s hotel costs.
Parma captain Antonio Lucarelli seemed to suggest this weekend’s fixture would go ahead, but he said that the players — who watched as bailiffs repossessed the club’s gym equipment last week — now had no club facilities to wash their dirty strips.
“As of tomorrow the dirty linen gets washed at home, we don’t have a laundry any more,” Lucarelli said. “For Genoa, I don’t think we have a problem as regards the bus, but we’ll see if the offer of the hotel comes through. We’re getting organized.”
Parma are said to be 100 million euros (US$113 million) in debt and owe up to 17 million euros in unpaid taxes.
Former owner Tomasso Ghirardi sold Parma in December last year to an Albanian businessman, although the deal lasted barely two months before the club was sold on to Giampietro Manenti, who has been struggling to keep the club on its feet.
If Parma are declared bankrupt, all the previous results from games involving the team this season would stand and the teams who were due to meet Parma in upcoming games would be awarded 3-0 victories.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two