Virtus, Zanetti resigns as president. Board of directors to be remade: Baraldi's position in the balance

Bologna, 29 January 2025 – Massimo Zanetti has resigned from the charge of president of Virtus. At the same time they resigned their Councilors Nicola Gualandi and Giuseppe Sermasi also resign and since the board of directors of the black and white club is composed of five members and is automatically decayed in consideration of these three waivers.

The ball is now in the shareholders' meeting - composed of the majority shareholder Max Zanetti, from the minority one Carlo Gherardi and the Virtus Foundation which has a minimum share - which will have to define the composition of the new board of directors.

This morning, the temporary former number one of the Black V, together with the other resigning members, will explain the reasons for this action in a press conference called specifically for this purpose.

In fact, it closes a settling of scores that has been going on since this summer, when Segafredo reduced its sponsorship by 60% in May and a few months later the company was due to be sold to an American fund of Israeli origin, an option that was immediately aborted, but which saw the company split in two with Zanetti on one side and Gherardi, together with ceo Luca Baraldi on the other.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the impression that the majority shareholder, in agreement with the general manager, had Paolo Ronci they were dragging their feet on the market so as not to hire anyone and not to dig into their pockets after Clyburn's injury, but in these first six months of last season there have been other warning signs.

Now there are two possible scenarios. The most obvious and certainly most probable one sees a shareholders' meeting that defines a board of directors without the presence of Baraldi and that in operational decisions gives more power to Ronci, while the second sees the realization of what has long been rumored under the arcades of Basket City. Even with fractional payments, a capital increase is open to allow the Black V to remain in line with the economic parameters required by the Federbasket and if in these days Gherardi makes a payment and completes the operation he will become the majority unless Zanetti quickly compensates the amount with another payment and re-establishes the current balance that sees the entrepreneur leader in coffee production at 55% and the owner of Cribis stuck at 45%.

The current agreements between the parties do not foresee such slights, but according to rumors, if this hypothesis were to materialize, it would not be the first time that the agreement between the two has not been respected to the letter.

It should not be forgotten that Gherardi also took over from Bologna Fairs a credit that the trade fair body had towards the club for 2 million and 400 thousand euros and this aspect also has an impact in a chess game where it is not clear what is at stake.

These tensions between the partners and the resulting lack of investment seriously risk keeping Virtus out of the next Euroleague, thus throwing away everything that has been built in the last eight years.