Italy’s Chievo Verona folds up

The Italian football club, Chievo Verona have folded up after failing to find an investor to resolve their financial problems, the local authorities announced on Tuesday.

Chievo, who played in the Seria A for 17 seasons featured in Serie B last season but failed to satisfy the Italian second division’s financial solvency criteria and were relegated to Serie D.

They needed to put their affairs in order, to enter that competition before it kicked off its season.

The deadline for Serie D registration was Tuesday and the club frantically sought a buyer to bail it out but without success.

The Verona town hall announced, “the deadline for registering for the championship, which is about to begin, passed at midday.”

The club’s former captain Sergio Pellissier, who played almost 500 games for them, tried to put together a rescue plan but indicated his failure on Instagram on Saturday.

“Today, unfortunately, the story of that company that gave me so much has ended. This is one of the saddest days of my life,” he wrote. “I tried with all my strength and I really hoped to succeed in starting again and continuing this fantastic story.”

“I regret that I didn’t have enough time, it’s a really complicated period to be able to find sponsors,” he said.

Nicknamed the “Flying Donkeys”, they got promoted to Serie A for the first time in 2001 and operated on a shoestring budget but could not survive beyond 2019.

They even finished fourth in 2006 to qualify for the Champions League after AC Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio were each docked 30 points for their involvement in the Calciopoli scandal. They were knocked out in a qualifying round by Levski Sofia.