Capello given new Juve powers
Tuesday 23 May, 2006
Juventus continue their reinvention with director of sport Alessio Secco, effectively handing more power over transfer policy to Coach Fabio Capello.
“As of today, Secco will begin work along with Capello to prepare for the 2006-07 season,” announced temporary CEO Carlo Sant’Albano this evening.
“This organizational solution gets inspiration from an innovative vision, which I’m sure will be interpreted at best, thanks to the professionalism, the passion and the enthusiasm that Capello and Secco will put in their duty for Juventus, in coherence with the company’s tradition, and thus fulfilling at best all of our exceptional supporters’ expectations.”
This position of director of sport had not formally been part of the Juve set-up since 1995, when Luciano Moggi had this title before moving on to become general manager and then director general.
It’s reported that this new set-up will effectively hand more power to Coach Capello, who will be a ‘British style manager’ with the final say over transfer policy and organisation.
It’s an unusual work ethic for Italian football, where Coaches can generally advise directors over which players they would like, but have no actual input.
Secco is 36 years old and first joined Juve as a Press Officer in 1998-99, then working as their team manager. He hit the headlines earlier this season when Zlatan Ibrahimovic shouted at him in anger as the Swede was unhappy at his substitution against Treviso.
channel4.com