No salaries, no registration. This is the situation for Olbia this morning, just hours before the deadline to submit applications for admission to the 2025/26 Serie D season, set for 5:00 PM today.
After reassuring everyone for days, including a press release denying rumors of Turkish financier Murat Yilmaz's withdrawal, which had been labeled "fake news," the club's owners were forced to backtrack yesterday, announcing to members that there was no money to pay the May salary. No salaries, no releases, which certify payment of the amounts owed to players and coaching staff by May 31st and are crucial for admission to Serie D. Without them, Olbia is essentially out.
This morning will be crucial. The rest of the documentation is ready, but without the transfers to the members, totaling approximately €150,000, there won't be any releases, and the Bianconeri would be left out of Serie D.
Just think, the day before, the players had received a 10-cent deposit into their bank account to test the instantaneous nature of the transfer, should Yilmaz's money actually arrive at the bank. Everything was ready, in short. Except for the Turk and Olbia's coffers. If Benno Räber and Guido Surace, majority shareholders of the Gallura club representing SwissPro, which has owned Olbia since November 2023, fail to find a solution, their experience will end here. Also because, given last year's precedent, the appeal—which was successfully handled in 2024 by lawyer Eduardo Chiacchio—might not have the same success this time around.
As for Olbia, if anyone were to bother restarting them from the lower divisions, they certainly won't be able to buy the San Teodoro Porto Rotondo title to start again in the Eccellenza league: it was recently sold to Polisportiva Santa Teresa, which thus returns to the top regional football league after a nearly 30-year absence.
