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Palermo, Sicily was more than just a footballing bucket list tick, it was an insight into the world of Palermo Football Club, the Serie B side writing a new chapter in their storied pink and black history, one that the club is hoping will end in a return to their former stomping ground – Serie A.
The premise of FourFourTwo's trip to Italy was to speak to those inside the club for the latest in our YouTube series 'Football Explored', about the structural changes and knock-on effects since a change of ownership in 2022.
Palermo were taken over by City Football Group (CFG) and we wanted to understand how the new owners are creating an environment of sustainable success, ensuring that the financial turmoil of 2019, which saw Palermo demoted to Serie D, would be a thing of the past.
Those within the club spoke highly of their new owners (obviously) and the plans for Il Aquile. Head coach and former World Cup winner Pippo Inzaghi told us: “It’s like coaching a great club in Serie A.”
We knew it would take more to get the whole story, and that fans' perspective was needed to truly grasp what the changes meant to those on the terraces, and how it would impact the city as a whole. In the modern era of multi-club ownership and mind-boggling finances, it’s easy to see how fans often feel overlooked when it comes to their team, but in this part of the world, that didn’t seem to be the case.
“At first it was understandable that supporters might have felt uncertain,” local journalist Massimiliano Radicini told us, before explaining how CFG’s talk has been backed up by the walk, in doing so altering fans' viewpoint on things. “People began to believe that this could be the right project to relaunch Palermo’s ambitions.”
The football ecosystem is forever shifting, factors outside of the norm are influencing how a club operates both on and off the pitch, and whilst big investment brings with it surface level promises of money and success, deep down it’s the people behind the scenes who have to make it happen - and it’s those people who are the stars of our trip, the ones who made the visit to Southern Italy worth while, and the final documentary worth watching.
We'd love you to watch it at the top of this article, or via our YouTube here.
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