The $50 million Italian gamble keeping this Socceroos great up at night

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There is a volcano erupting over Vince Grella’s shoulder.

Not literally, of course. At least not right now; Mount Etna is almost always visible in this part of Sicily, so everyone knows what could happen at any moment.

In Grella’s office at Stadio Angelo Massimino, the home of Catania FC, there is a huge poster of Europe’s largest and most active volcano coughing up glowing molten lava, mounted on the wall behind his desk. He put it there.

What does this picture represent to him?

“The power,” Grella says, stubbing out his cigar into a glass ashtray.

“The power of this city. It’s a bit like the volcano: it can be nice and quiet, and when you least expect it, it has the power to squash a city.”

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Grella, 46, is referring to the fanatical supporters, or tifosi, of Catania FC - a fallen giant of Italian football who he, as the club’s chief executive, is trying to help guide back to Serie A, where they believe they belong. Right now, they are fighting to gain promotion from Serie C, where they have been stuck for the past three years following their rescue from insolvency by Australian property developer Ross Pelligra.

In Italian, tifosi is used to describe a particular kind of sporting fan. The word is derived from ‘typhus’, suggesting they are so devoted and obsessed it is like they have been overcome with an infectious disease. It’s fitting.

The day before our meeting, Catania threw the gates of the stadium open for a training session and 3000 people rocked up. Many teams in their division would be happy to get that many people to a game; the Rossazzurri, as they are known, attract average crowds of 17,000. That’s more than what five Serie A clubs are getting this season.

“I think that just sums up Catania. That sums up the people,” Grella says.

“They cheered the players like as if we were playing a Champions League final on Sunday. The passion that they have is priceless.

“They have that power. Because if they were to ever turn against you, they have the power of the volcano. You don’t get 3000 people at a training session if you don’t have that power. And it’s something that’s always excited me.

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“That’s thanks to the enthusiasm created behind the dream that the Catania people have thanks to one guy: his name’s Ross Pelligra.

“What happened yesterday in training makes me not sleep at night, because I’ve got to make this work. We need to be in Serie A. There is no reason why we can’t do that, because we have a chairman who has the resources to be in Serie A. So we need to get our shit together, and get to Serie A.”

Easier said than done.

Serie C is one of the hardest divisions in world football to get out of. It is the first level of Italian professional football that is regionalised: Serie B is national, but Serie C is split into three leagues in the north, middle and south of the country, and only the top team in each is automatically promoted.

There is only one other promotion spot up for grabs - the winner of a lengthy play-off system at the end of the season, involving a total of 28 teams.

Catania has entered that gauntlet for the past two seasons, only to be eliminated on both occasions, despite being level on aggregate after a home-and-away tie because their opponents were seeded higher.

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Catania currently sits second on the ladder of their league, 12 points behind leaders Benevento with only two games remaining.

Once again, the play-offs beckon.

It’s been very rocky. The people have always... well, they’ve never really given us the benefit of the doubt.

Catania FC chief executive Vince Grella

The natives are restless. So, too, is Grella, who admits the Catania “project” is one year behind schedule; by now, he expected they’d be in Serie B, setting the platform for another promotion to Serie A, a level they have not competed at since 2014.

Not for the first time, the tifosi are coming for Grella. The people are turning. The volcano is rumbling.

This week, the club parted ways with coach William Vialli, who had been in the job for only 29 days. His replacement? Domenico Toscano, his predecessor, who has been brought back for a second stint. Many fans are wondering when Grella will be the next to go.

Grella can deal with that; he experienced far worse during his 10 years as a player in Serie A and the English Premier League. For him, it’s water off a duck’s back.

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“You know my career. I never worried about that type of pressure. It’s actually what drives me to get up in the morning,” he said.

“Otherwise, what would I do it for? I don’t do it for financial gain. I have a decent salary, but when I was a player agent, I was making a quadruple of now. But money doesn’t drive me, mate. I need to have other things in my life. And this project is something special.”

What Grella can’t understand is the ongoing criticism and scepticism of Pelligra, who has spent roughly $50 million on the club since taking over - purely out of a desire to give back to the area where his family comes from.

But locals have never truly warmed to him, partly because of the scars left by previous ownership disasters, which have left them wondering if his heart is truly in it, or if he’ll suddenly pull his financial backing one day and leave the club in the lurch.

Instead of questioning him, Grella reckons they ought to build a statue as a monument to his ambition.

“It’s been very rocky. The people have always ... well, they’ve never really given us the benefit of the doubt,” he said.

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“Sometimes people take for granted what he does. I love the guy. The things that he’s done for this football club, the sacrifices of his personal time - the guy comes to Italy 14 times in one season. It’s not around the corner, mate. And this is a busy guy. He’s got businesses around the world.

“The guy’s having a right go, mate. He has given every single thing that’s needed. He’s never cut a corner. Never said, ‘Vinnie, too much money.’ And they still break his balls. That really gets under my skin because he doesn’t deserve it.

“I don’t want to talk out of school because he doesn’t like me to do this, but I told him I don’t give a shit whether he likes it or not: he deserves to be respected in a special way. We dream of Serie A thanks to him, and he deserves a very high level of respect.

“If they’re going to break someone’s balls, they should break my balls, because I run the football club. He has given this football club everything. So the only responsible person for the non-success would be me.”

Grella will continue to bear the brunt of the fans’ frustration; it comes with the territory.

At some point soon, he hopes, the volcano will settle down, and the atmosphere around the club will lighten - but it won’t happen until they get promoted, and he knows it.

“It’s going to take time. It’s going to take hard work,” he said.

“It’s going to take the people who administer the club to have the personality and charisma to be able to live with them not giving us ever the benefit of the doubt, and us continuing to follow our morals, our values, our principles and not changing - because they’re not changing.

“At the end of the day, it’s their city. It’s their club. We are custodians. Yeah, Ross is the chairman. We’re just bringing the club forward.”

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