Kicking the ball

What do you do when you see spiders? Do you kill them straight away or do you capture them and take them outside?

In the frame of the sumptuous Marconi Club in Sydney, Lillo Foti and Vince Foti had dinner in April 2015 to celebrate the partnership between the Marconi Stallions and the Reggina Calcio, two football teams recognizing their connection to Reggio Calabria, Italy, and soccer pride. The two Fotis are not related. Vince is the president of the Marconi Club and a successful businessman in Sydney, owner of a firecracker industry. Lillo (Pasquale) has been the president of the Reggina Calcio in Reggio Calabria and is an entrepreneur in the fashion industry. Among Lillo Foti’s merits is the promotion of the Reggina team to the Italian Premier League (Serie A) for the first time in the history of the club. Lillo Foti, reported the newspapers, spent over a week in Australia on that occasion, in April 2015. He spent time in negotiations and formal or informal meetings with entrepreneurs of Italian origin in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra; some of them were interested in investing in the football club in Calabria and in formalizing some sort of stable contact with the region that, from Australia, is at times difficult to maintain.

Six Australian businessmen were interested in the deal promoted by Nick Scali – that Nick Scali of Scali furniture we have met in previous chapters, from San Martino of Taurianova, province of Reggio Calabria.

The partnership between Reggina Calcio and Marconi Stallions is the first step. Nick Scali adores Calabria and, at least until 2015, he said he used to go back a couple of times a year for work and personal reasons. His was a choice from the heart, he told the newspapers. Despite not being one of Italy’s best football clubs, Reggina Calcio has a strong following in Australia due to the large Calabrian diaspora. Scali thinks of this partnership between Reggio and Australia also to promote exchanges between the two clubs, the players, the support teams. This could be a way to provide financial stability as well as a possible direct pathway for Australian players into Italian football.