“Tlisted below are nonetheless some preconceptions as a result of soccer has lengthy been a person's world,” says Claudia Rizzo, “however I believe issues are altering. Girls can convey a distinct perspective, an added worth even on this area.”
At 23, Rizzo has made historical past. In September the entrepreneur turned president of Ternana Calcio, a Serie C membership from Umbria, changing into the primary lady within the membership's hundred-year historical past to carry the position. “It's an enormous accountability, but additionally a possibility to convey one thing completely different,” she says. “I wish to show that girls can lead in soccer simply as they do in some other area.”
Rizzo was born in Rome to Gian Luigi Rizzo and Laura Melis, a part of a household well-known in Italian enterprise circles. Her father heads the Villa Claudia group, a non-public healthcare firm that runs medical clinics in Rome and Syracuse. The household's pursuits have progressively expanded from healthcare into sport and agriculture, sectors that intertwine in Claudia's story.
“I began out as a small entrepreneur within the agricultural sector with my household, in Noto, Sicily,” she says. “On the identical time, I started working in our household's medical clinics, so my important fields had been healthcare and agriculture. Soccer, although, has all the time been an actual ardour of mine as a fan. Then this chance got here alongside, because of my household, and I made a decision to take it. At this age, I believe it's proper to take possibilities and throw your self into issues; that's the way it was for me in agriculture too. You're not born a farmer or an entrepreneur, you turn out to be one.”
The acquisition of Ternana by the Villa Claudia group was a part of a wider plan involving the joint development of a brand new Liberati Stadium and an adjoining personal clinic, a mixed funding price about €80m (£70.2m). The undertaking, designed to create a contemporary hub for sport and healthcare in Terni, has encountered bureaucratic, political and monetary hurdles, however stays central to the group's long-term imaginative and prescient for the town. The purpose, Rizzo explains, is to root the membership locally. “Ternana is greater than a soccer staff,” she says. “It's a part of the town's identification, and we wish to give it stability and future energy.”
Though her household's title looms massive over the operation, Claudia is set to determine herself as an impartial president. “I'm studying how you can handle the membership nearly totally,” she says. “It's essential for me to point out that I'm not simply right here due to my household. I'm right here to work, to be taught, and to earn respect.”
Rizzo grew up surrounded by soccer. “I used to go to the stadium with my dad once I was little. After I was born, my father congratulated my mom not a lot for giving delivery, however as a result of she did it on the identical day his staff [Juventus] received the Scudetto! So sure, I've grown up with soccer. It's a captivating world, filled with feelings, generally good and generally powerful, however all the time stimulating.”
Her arrival in Italian soccer got here in a interval of transition for the decrease leagues, usually shaken by monetary and judicial troubles, with the Serie B membership Juve Stabia final month positioned beneath judicial administration for alleged criminal infiltration, in keeping with the general public prosecutor's workplace. “It's not the primary time issues like this have occurred, and possibly not the final,” she says. “Soccer is a enterprise, and like in any enterprise there could be issues. The one factor you are able to do is focus by yourself work and keep away from repeating others' errors. We wish to run issues cleanly and transparently, and that's what we're doing at Ternana.”
Throughout the membership's construction, Rizzo works alongside Tiziana Pucci, the managing director and a trusted affiliate of Massimo Ferrero, the previous Sampdoria proprietor. Ferrero is commonly seen across the stadium and coaching floor, though his position stays undefined.
Though Rizzo commutes each day between Rome and Terni, she has shortly bonded with the area people. “I'm nonetheless attending to know the town, however individuals are type, welcoming and I really feel snug right here. A president shouldn't be distant. The gamers should really feel that there's help and stability behind them. That sense of calm is important, and I'm positive that with dedication and the correct mindset we will have season and make everybody proud.”
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She prefers modesty to grand guarantees however has a transparent concept about how you can construct a future for Ternana, one that would revive the glory of the Nineteen Seventies when the membership reached Serie A beneath Corrado Viciani and have become identified for its “gioco corto”, a short-passing, possession-based model that presaged the Dutch and Spanish fashions.
“We have now our goal,” she says. “However for superstition I received't say it. The academy is our future: younger gamers want steering, help, and the correct setting to develop.”
Her phrases mirror her management: composed, sensible however with a transparent sense of belonging. “I see youth as a energy,” she says. “It lets you convey recent concepts and a contemporary method. At Ternana, it's essential to construct a bridge between the brand new and older generations whereas retaining the membership's identification alive. I wish to do job right here and meet the expectations of the followers, the staff, and the employees. If this world continues to welcome me and if I show myself, I'd like to see myself in 20 years nonetheless as a president, possibly even of one other membership. Who is aware of?”
She returns to the theme that opened the dialog, the one which defines her story in soccer and in Italy. “The hot button is to ship a transparent message: soccer isn't only for males,” Rizzo says. “You don't must be a person to run a membership or work in soccer administration. The longer term is feminine, and little by little soccer will welcome extra girls who can provide the sport recent vitality and a optimistic push ahead.”
