President Niederauer’s statement

This morning, VFC President Duncan Niederauer spoke at the press conferenze in Ca’ Venezia:

“When we took over the team in early 2020, we knew that we had our work cut out for us. We knew we were buying a club in which we would need to make substantial investments, and we have.

The team has rewarded us for making these investments, achieving salvation in the 19-20 season by finishing strong, earning a promotion to Serie A in 20-21, competing at a very high level with some statement wins in 21-22 in Serie A but failing to remain in the first division and returning to the playoffs in the 22-23 season, only to fall to Cagliari, a team who ultimately earned the promotion to Serie A.

It is early in this season, but our performance on the pitch to start the season has been very impressive. Mister Vanoli has the boys playing at a very high level, and as the fans show at every match, they are all in with us, which gives us great joy. We have an incredibly talented and valuable roster, and a great and loyal fan base. The turnout for our recent matches, particularly the one against Parma, has been a source of pride and joy for us. It has given us an important advantage at home.

I am not surprised by this early season performance. In fact, it should be expected. We finished last season very well, we kept all of the key pieces intact, and we added some depth with the arrival of new players. We should aspire to be near the top of the table, and nothing less than the playoffs should satisfy us this season. We will remain focused on one match at a time, but our ambitions for the championship remain high.

“Near the pitch” is also going well. We invested a lot in the infrastructure to improve our existing stadium, and to build a state-of-the-art modern training center. Our new company headquarters opened to the public in June 2023 and welcomed the players in early July when they returned for pre-season. This investment was important, not only for the first team, but to provide state-of-the-art facilities for our academy to develop the next generation of players who will become assets of the club and also our women’s sector. The new training center also now includes a VFC shop and will include a small bar, which will allow us to create more ways to engage with our fans, sponsors and the media making Ca’ Venezia our home.

One of the positive sides also is the fact that the project for the construction of the new stadium is going ahead, and this will make it easier for our fans to be able to come and watch the games since the new facility will be on the mainland. The bidding process is expected to take place soon, and at that point Director Antonelli and I will get active right away and talk with the developer to study how we can contribute to make the facility as usable as possible.

These foundational pieces position the club for future success, on and off the pitch, but are all very expensive. While our goal on the pitch is to always field a competitive team, we have to do this in a way that is also financially sustainable. This is an objective we have yet to achieve. We have made what I think are the necessary organizational changes to achieve this, but we have much more to do for the business and the cost of the roster to be manageable.

Part of the failure to achieve sustainability is also my responsibility, when we went to Serie A we decided to invest heavily in the team and yet relegation came. The performance of the summer market session is a representation of how not everything is controllable: we brought in several new players assuming that others would be sold, but it is not always easy to sell players outright especially in the Italian market, which is going in a certain direction. Some of these have since left on loan, so the goal of sustainability needs more time to be achieved.

As I have reflected on all of this over the past several months, I think our group has taken the project about as far as we can. We believe that we have made things better and the club’s assets are worth far more than they were in 2020 when we took over. The brand of the city, the brand of the club, the roster of players, the youth academy and the new training center to name a few.

With this in mind, we wanted to share that we have recently embarked on a formal process to invite new investors into VFC with a focus on building the club for the future. We have lofty expectations for VFC, and we appreciate that we need some help with the investment required to achieve them.

Since last September, we have begun a series of talks with potential investors who are excited to take the next steps in this journey with us, and we have also signed a strategic partnership with a brand ambassador that we expect to announce in the coming months. We are encouraged by all the positive momentum around Venezia FC and thought that formally announcing the search for a new partner at this time would attract some like-minded interested parties.

As I said, we will continue to give our best to this project and we expect more partners to join us, but we want to stay here, we are not going anywhere. Building a world-class football club in one of the most beautiful cities in the world is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Venice, our fans, players and staff deserve nothing less.

We hope to have terms agreed with a new partner by the end of the year, so that together, we can enter the second half of this championship stronger than ever, on and off the pitch.

We will have more to report in the very near future and thank you for your ongoing support.“