Popular Post The_Rev Posted February 20, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 20, 2015 Remember in the 1990s when Parma had one of the best teams in Europe? Guys like Buffon, Thuram, Cannavaro, Sensini, Veron, Crespo, Ortega, Chiesa, Dino Baggio and Asprilla on their books? They never won Serie A but they finished runners up once, won the UEFA cup twice, the Italian Cup twice, the Cup Winners Cup and then Parmalat (their parent company who were in the processed food and dairy business) decided to have a financial meltdown half a decade before the rest of the world did to the point where they got done for fraud and the price of milk in Italy went through the roof? It seemed like Parma had recovered from that but it's all melted down again. They finished 6th in Serie A last year but were ineligible for Europe because of their financial state but this season has been a disaster. All but relegated in February, they have 10 points for the season and are currently 13 points from safety with massively inferior goal difference effectively making it 14. It's just been announced they are unable to fulfil their fixture against Udinese this weekend because they cannot afford to open the stadium (or at least pay stewards to manage the crowd). Dunno what this means for the rest of the season, whether they can continue with the rest of their fixtures or whether they will just cease to exist but it's a real shame to see that happen to any football club. It's incredibly weird for me and probably others my age just because Parma were such a footballing powerhouse when we were all discovering the game. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Yeah, very sad really. Hope they are able to stay afloat somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 (edited) they looked down anyway from the table with a points deduction but didnt they have a recent dispute with Cassano so no surprise though last season they had a squad of about 150 players so sort of makes sense great team back in the 90s and looking at that photo it was a glorious team and would have been best around in any other league. was some XI Edited February 20, 2015 by Zatman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 great kit back then too great photo actually, the grubby stadium and all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 suppose they are a small club who from a small enough town so was probably never going to last similar to say Portsmouth though they werent lucky enough to have Arry in charge though or Wigan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 (edited) Serie A, the 90's and early 2000's, what a wonderful period of football that was, I might have been young but I can still hear the Football Italia theme tune and James Richardson's commentary as he holds up a newspaper explaining what it says, simpler times. That Parma team really was outstanding wasn't it? Such a shame what has happened, just hope they can somehow survive after their impending relegation. Edited February 20, 2015 by AVFCforever1991 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isa Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 They had quite a promising team that arose from the aftermath of the aforementioned star-studded one in the early 00's also with Frey, Bonera, Ferrari (?), Bresciano, Adriano, Gilardino etc. Managed by Prandelli at the time (I think). Just another casualty of the greater malaise that has engulfed Serie A, accelerated by the general economic situation. Truly saddening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Didn't they spend about £18m on Savo? Yeah, long time coming. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 (edited) Remember in the 1990s when Parma had one of the best teams in Europe? Guys like Buffon, Thuram, Cannavaro, Sensini, Veron, Crespo, Ortega, Chiesa, Dino Baggio and Asprilla on their books? Tomas Brolin, Fernando Couto and Gianfranco Zola as well! I always played as Parma in Champ Manager Italia 95 (remember when it was a separately purchased game for each league?). They had a solid core of Italians in the team from Buffon in goal, Mussi, Benarrivo, Apolloni and Minotti in defence (I think most may have all been in the Italy 94 WC squad) Baggio and Fiore in midfield and Zola, Melli and Branca up front. Nevio Scala in charge Great team back in the day. Sad times now Edited February 20, 2015 by Xela Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Udinese get awared a 3 nil I take it or do they just wait for Parma to sort themselves out and play the game later on in the season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketspuds Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 Udinese get awared a 3 nil I take it or do they just wait for Parma to sort themselves out and play the game later on in the season? Doubt they would be made to wait until parma could afford it. Opens a big can of worms for clubs finding excuses to postpone games. 3-0 Udinese is most likely outcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted February 20, 2015 Author Share Posted February 20, 2015 Middlesbrough failed to fulfil a fixture against Blackburn in 1996/97. They pulled out of an away game at Ewood Park in December 1996 at the start of the busy run of fixtures over Christmas citing that the entire squad had flu. The game was rearranged to be the penultimate game of the season and ended 0-0. Middlesbrough got docked three points for failing to fulfill that fixture and it literally relegated them. Without the deduction they would have finished 14th, ahead of West Ham on goals scored. Instead they finished 19th and went down. At the risk of going off on a tangent It was a tight table at both ends that year. Had Middlesbrough not been deducted points then Coventry would have been relegated on goal difference ahead of Southampton and at the top of the table Newcastle (2nd) Arsenal (3rd) and Liverpool (4th) all finished on 68 points with identical W-D-L records (19-11-8) and Newcastle got into the Champions League (only 2 spots back then) on goal difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Hugely sad news this, always liked Parma. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Middlesbrough failed to fulfil a fixture against Blackburn in 1996/97. They pulled out of an away game at Ewood Park in December 1996 at the start of the busy run of fixtures over Christmas citing that the entire squad had flu. The game was rearranged to be the penultimate game of the season and ended 0-0. Middlesbrough got docked three points for failing to fulfill that fixture and it literally relegated them. Without the deduction they would have finished 14th, ahead of West Ham on goals scored. Instead they finished 19th and went down. At the risk of going off on a tangent It was a tight table at both ends that year. Had Middlesbrough not been deducted points then Coventry would have been relegated on goal difference ahead of Southampton and at the top of the table Newcastle (2nd) Arsenal (3rd) and Liverpool (4th) all finished on 68 points with identical W-D-L records (19-11-8) and Newcastle got into the Champions League (only 2 spots back then) on goal difference. I forgot about Boro. Looking back, why on earth didn't they just play the kids? Did they rely think they would get away with it? BEST case was a 3-0 loss. What happened was even worse. Mental. Those were the days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 gone. dissolved, all future fixtures conceded as 3-0 apparently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted February 21, 2015 Moderator Share Posted February 21, 2015 That's awful. Bad news. I hope there's an FC of Parma project out there somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Shit one. Well and truly. Produced some great teams/moments over the years. Forza Parma [emoji20] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 http://www.football-italia.net/62937/parma-what-we-know Not quite yet but going that way. Incredible it can happen to a team in a top league. I suppose we've been lucky an English team hasn't gone bust in recent years when plenty of clubs have been bailed out last minute like Crystal Palace a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPower_14 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Financial fair play working absolute wonders. So glad it came in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NurembergVillan Posted February 22, 2015 Moderator Share Posted February 22, 2015 That's made me sad. I was reading about it in the week and all the memories came back of watching them back in the 90s. For this to happen to any team (even our grubby, illiterate neighbours) is heartbreaking. The despair of being a fan who has to watch the club die in front of their eyes must be unbearable. It's hard enough watching our club gradually become riddled with arthritis in the last few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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