Siena Calcio turned down an offer of €1.3 million by Joseph Portelli to buy the club.
A report by Gazzetta di Siena said that the offer was officially presented to acquire the club who had struggled in recent years and is currently playing in the Serie D.
For the past months, it was an open secret that Joseph Portelli was hoping to buy an Italian club.
The report adds that “a concrete, structured and progressively reinforced offer was formally presented in recent weeks to the current owner of Siena Calcio, but it was met with a clear refusal and without margins of openness.”
“The path that led to denial is anything but superficial. In a first phase, a proposal for the total acquisition of the club amounting to one million euros was put forward. Subsequently, in an attempt to meet the requests and demonstrate the solidity of the operation, Maltese investors relaunched their offer, presenting a second improved proposal that brought the valuation of Siena Calcio to 1.3 million euro – negotiable – probably going up to 1.5 million. A significant relaunch, accompanied by a detailed sports and industrial project, designed to give stability, programming and perspective to a company that has long lived in a condition of fragility. An interesting proposal for entrepreneurs who bought the football club for about half of what is being offered now.”
Gazzetta di Siena said that “the proposal provided for the acquisition of one hundred percent of the company shares and was based on a medium-term growth plan, with targeted investments in the sports sector, on the organisational structure and on the enhancement of the youth sector, inserting Siena in a development path capable of progressively bringing it back to categories more in line with its history and its coat of arms. A project that, in the intentions of the proponents, should have represented a turning point with respect to a management based on survival.”
However, president Jonas Bodin said that Siena Calcio was not for sale and the owners do not want to give up control of the club, excluding any hypothesis of total acquisition and limiting the possible opening to the only entry of partners, without any transfer of ownership of the company.
The current club was founded in 2023 after the original Siena were founded in 1904 but went bankrupt in 2014 and re-founded as Robur Siena. In 2020, they failed to register to the Serie C and were re-founded as ACN Siena 1904. The club was renamed AC Robur Siena 1904 but after being excluded from professional football once again due to outstanding debts, with the support of the city of Siena, Siena F.C. S.S.D. were set-up in 2023.
Siena had spent seven years in the Serie A after winning promotion in 2003 and after being relegated in 2010, they regained a quick promotion where they spent another two years in the Serie A.
Siena F.C. S.S.D. won promotion to the Serie D on their first attempt and this is their second year in this division.