Massimo Cellino, former president of Cagliari, is back in the news.
A month ago, the Brescia Prosecutor's Office requested the dismissal of the owner's case in connection with an investigation into alleged trading of non-existent credit and money laundering, which subsequently resulted in Brescia Calcio's penalty and relegation to Serie C, highlighting how Cellino had been defrauded. Therefore, in recent days, the Lombardy Committee of the LND reactivated the club's 114-year-old membership number , of which Cellino is still the "owner." There's a reason for this: the law firm Tonucci & Partners, which represents Brescia Calcio, of which Cellino remains the owner, recalls the implications of reactivating membership number 7810 in terms of the solidarity contributions required by FIFA.
"It means that the city's historic team is being revived and will be entitled to solidarity payments if Sandro Tonali's transfer from Newcastle to Tottenham goes through." There is, in fact, a system that awards a portion of the value of international transfers to the clubs that have nurtured the player's development between the ages of 12 and 23.
The rules stipulate that 5% of the transaction value will be split between the clubs that provide the transfer: each season played between the ages of 12 and 15 is worth 0.25% of the transfer fee, while those between the ages of 16 and 23 are worth 0.50%. Since Sandro Tonali wore the Brescia jersey until he was 19, the Rondinelle would receive 3.5% of the transaction value: on a €117 million transfer, that's just over €4 million. Another portion – around €1.5 million – would go to AC Milan. The owner claims he "hasn't reactivated the registration for this reason. Time will tell."
The fact remains that Brescia Calcio has 6.5 million in debt, four of which it would pay off with the sale of Tonali, and that it could start again from the Third Category.
"The city's historic team is back to life," Cellino comments through his lawyers. And he taunts the management of the club that arose from the ashes of the 1911 team—his own: " Will he win this time too? The football summer is long.
