Insider Rocco Commisso, billionaire owner of Italian soccer club Fiorentina, spoke with Forbes about why the competition was doomed and what it means for the world of soccer.
Rocco Commisso, the U.S. billionaire owner of Italian soccer team Fiorentina, denounced the recent European Super League as “elitist,” arguing that the ill-fated competition makes clear the need for reform in soccer. The Super League was supposed to be the next big thing—an exclusive new tournament for Europe’s biggest soccer clubs which would bring in billions of dollars in extra revenue. On Sunday,12 of the world’s top teams including Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool and Juventus announced they would take part, with a $4 billion line of credit from JPMorgan secured for the competition. But the rest of the rollout was a mess. Everything fell apart by Wednesday amid widespread outrage from fans, other teams, national leagues and politicians. Many criticized the Super League as an effort to bring a “closed” American-style competition into European soccer. Eight of the 12 original clubs have now withdrawn from the Super League, which has all but collapsed. “It was a huge PR failure… a lot of it had to do with arrogance,” Commisso tells Forbes. “These big clubs thought they were the chosen few, on top of the world.” The Italian-American billionaire built his fortune by founding cable TV provider Mediacom Communications in 1995, where he has served as chairman and CEO for the last 25 years. Commisso has a net worth of $7.2 billion, according to Forbes ’ calculations. In June 2019, the billionaire purchased, for an undisclosed sum, the Italian soccer club Fiorentina from brothers Andrea and Diego Della Valle, who had acquired the team in 2002 when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Commisso, who was born in Italy and immigrated to the United States at age 12, says he grew up playing soccer with a ball made of rags and has remained an avid fan of the sport. “It’s been my passion my whole life.” His team, Fiorentina, are currently 13th in Italy’s top league, the Serie A, hoping to avoid relegation (being moved to a lower league) with just six games left to play.
