Misery seldom comes unaccompanied. Only hours after Modena revealed that it wouldn’t sign up for Lega Volley’s 2018-19 season, it was Pesaro’s turn to drop a bomb in its fans future expectations. The team, which is a three-time Italian Champions, and which finished the current regular season in 7th place, recently falling to Scandicci in the playoffs, published a note in its official website questioning the future of the club. In it, the club’s presidency states its satisfaction with the current season’s results, which went beyond anyone’s expectations, but he also talks about the dire need of financial help from the club.
Here is the full statement:
“Volley Pesaro wishes to thank players, technicians, staff, volunteers, managers, sponsors, media and fans for their commitment, passion and energy in this season, for having supported, without limits, the return of the team to A1 and its stay in the top league of the Italian championship.
The president would like to declare his full satisfaction for the results achieved, first for finishing withing the top 10 clubs, thus keeping itself in the first division, then for making the playoffs. It was an extraordinary result, above all the most rosy expectations, a sign of the quality of the choices made, of the technical, athletic, motivational work and of a healthy environment that continues to create the best conditions for working and generating enthusiasm, attention and sharing even outside the game sphere.
Today, after the 2017/18 championship, we have decided to tackle the planning and construction the next season and those that will come with the utmost transparency. Women’s volleyball is an amateur sport of the highest level in Italy, perhaps the highest level championship in the world, with a budget for professional sport and organizational commitment of maximum efficiency.
Out of respect for the city, the fans, the managers, the technicians, the players, the agents, the volunteers, and the women’s volleyball League as well as for all the fans of this sport and for the history of our team we want to be extremely honest about the situation and on existing options. We are clear that we want to bring Pesaro back to fight for the Scudetto and regain the European cups. In order to pursue this objective, long-term planning, economic certainties, organization, a technical project, a youth team, and the support of the whole city are required.
We believe, without false modesty, to have demonstrated, saving the team in 2013 from the disappearance, then planning our return to AI, that the team is able to generate enough results, enthusiasm, fun and positive energy, to give visibility to sponsors and cities, to be able to carry out projects, even ambitious ones, both on and off the field.
There are 3 crucial months to complete the work started in 2017 and carried out in recent months, we need to define everything between April and June, for the new A1 season and for the multi-year project. Pre-registrations must be made, guarantees provided, the management structure of the team defined, the seasonal objectives, assessed, negotiated and, if necessary, the contracts of technicians, staff and players confirmed. Alternatives should be chosen, the youth sector organized, external collaborations must be planned, activities to support the team and sponsors, communication campaigns, the facilities and activities to be carried out off-season and pre-season. In order to do so, we need economic certainty, we need to have the coverage of a large part of the budget assured. The rest can, logically, mature in the following months.
We can not and do not want to continue living on verbal promises and assurances that, as last year, have only materialized to a minimum. We owe it to all the people who love and work for Volley Pesaro. We will work on our project incessantly to get those certainties within these deadlines. The sooner we will have them, the better we will build the team for the next season.
If at the end of this period we don’t reach the budget coverage, as explained above, we will make the most painful and painful decision, to renounce our place in next season’s championship and, with great regret, we will be forced to give up our dream, our goals, leaving enthusiasts , professionals and the city all without the show, visibility, joy, and energy that only healthy, shared and played sport can bring to young people and our daily lives.
Go Waves! Come on Pesaro!”
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