Latest football news: AS Roma sale imminent
According to Italian media, Serie A club AS Roma is believed to be on the verge of changing owners anytime soon.
It is expected that an American consortium led by Thomas Di Benedetto is just a few hours away from buying the club from the Sensi family.
The Sensi family bought the Serie A club through Compagnia Italpetroli from an oil tycoon http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Franco-c14050 Sensi in 1993. Under his ownership, Roma enjoyed a successful era in which they won the Scudetto in the 2000-01 season, the Coppa Italia twice and Supercoppa
Italiana two times as well.
After his death, his daughter Rosella Sensi took over the company and the club that her father had bought.
On 9 June, 2010, Rosella Sensi announced that the club was up for sale after it was discovered that the club had been under a lot of debt for a long time. Major creditor of the club, UniCredit took over and it is now believed that along with Italpetroli,
UniCredit has reached a mutual agreement over the sale of the club.
A few weeks ago, the Sensi family released a statement that named Rothschild, an investment banking firm, as an advisor over the imminent sale of the cash-strapped club.
Moreover, UniCredit now has the final say on player transfers at Roma and every single move is discussed with the bank first before any deal is finalised.
Many players at http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roma-c31603 are still waiting to have their contracts renewed. Philippe Mexes and Nicolas Burdisso are yet to reach an agreement over their respective contracts and it is believed that the duo will depart for Pastures New in order to minimize the
club debt and reduce the wages expenditure.
The asking price of the club was set at 325 million Euros and temporary owner UniCredit bank had been looking for an outside buyer for a long time.
Currently, with so much uncertainty around the club, Roma have done well under Claudio Ranieri and are still in the Scudetto contention with only 5 points behind league leaders AC Milan. The imminent sale of the club would be a welcome news for players and
fans alike as it will definitely mark the start of a new era under the American consortium.
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