Giussy Farina, former president of Milan and Vicenza, dies

Milan, 22 April 2025 – Italian football Giuseppe “Giussy” Farina cries, former president of Vicenza and Milan. He was 91 years old. He was the protagonist of a world irretrievably lost for Italian sport, that of passionate and somewhat reckless owners on the spending front, identifying with the companies of which they were the public face (and favorite target of the fans, in moments of protest).

Flour is still the holder of a small record: he was the Italian businessman who held the helm of the largest number of football teams. To "his" Lanerossi Vicenza and MilanIn fact, a short period at the helm of Padova should be added, at the end of the 70s, as well as a series of smaller clubs, for the remarkable figure of 12 companies owned in total over a period of approximately fifteen years.

The character

Of peasant origins, he graduated in Law at the University of Padua, a milestone after which he launched into entrepreneurial activity. It was in that period that his passion for football was born. Enter Vicenza with a small fee and becomes its president.

Giussy Farina with her obsession Paolo Rossi

Under his guidance the red and whites experienced their best moment. In 1978, as a newly promoted team, Vicenza takes second place, surrendering only to Juventus. It is, still today, the best result obtained by a team that has just risen from the second division to the top division. In that championship Paolo Rossi's star is definitely established, a player for whom Farina has always had enormous respect, going as far as to say that he has never fallen in love with anyone in his life, apart from Rossi.

Farina will know how to say no to Juventus, who is willing to do crazy things to bring the league's top scorer to Turin. No way. The Bianconeri will lose Pablito's registration in the envelopes, for a sum around two and a half billion lire.

In Milan

Giussy Farina and Gianni Rivera, at the time when the Golden Boy, after retiring, had entered the Rossoneri management

Farina will arrive on the red and black side of the Naviglio in 1982, the year of the unfortunate relegation to Serie B on the pitch. It is a resigned Milan, which Giussy – as he was nicknamed – still managed to put, at least in part, back on track. On the Rossoneri bench Farina brings Nils Liedholm, the Baron fresh from the Scudetto with Roma, which in 1979 had given the Rossoneri the long-awaited star.

From Juventus he manages to buy Paolo Rossi, bringing him with him also in his Milan adventure. Pablito, however, is no longer the area robber who made Italy great in the 1982 World Cup. His adventure with the Devil is a failure, apart from a brace in a derby that ended, however, in a draw. Among the other players brought to Milan there is the English couple Wilkins-Hateley, thanks to which Milan will win a derby again after a long time, and the other British Luther Blisset, nicknamed the “Black Calloni” for his poor form in front of goal.

Farina's season ends in dust, with the elimination in the UEFA Cup by the Belgians of Waregem and the protest of the ultras, who reached the grandstand to protest against the president who a few years earlier they had hosted on the steps of the Curva Sud. Farina sells a Milan at risk of liquidation to Cavaliere Silvio Berlusconi. A whole new story will begin.

The reaction

Many in the world of football – between social networks and websites – They expressed their condolencesor the closeness to his family. Among others, Lega Serie A and Monza. And, obviously, the teams that had him as president, starting with Milan.

"He was the president of Milan in the early 1980s, adventure undertaken with courage and enthusiasm – reads the post shared by the Rossoneri on social media – With a deep sense of respect and participation in the mourning, the entire club remembers the figure of Giuseppe Farina and joins in the emotion of all his family members".