Serie A: Claudio Lotito, the "godfather of Calcio" turned senator from Berlusconi's party

It’s a scene that (almost) sums up Claudio Lotito all by itself. President of Lazio Rome since July 2004, which he then recovered on the verge of bankruptcy for around twenty million euros, the 65-year-old Italian entrepreneur took the recent Italian legislative elections, which ended on Sunday with an unequivocal success for the right-wing and far-right coalition bringing together Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia, the great winner of the ballot, Matteo Salvini’s Lega and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia.

A candidate in Molise, a central-southern region bordering Rome, the number 1 of the Biancocelesti has regularly been seen on the pitch, to the point of sitting down with some of them to play scopa, one of the games of the most famous cards in Italy. The scene occurs on September 14, and the video quickly goes viral on social networks. Beer on his left, cards in hand and endless jokes. Before leaving, he drops one last note to his teammate of the day: “With Lotito, guaranteed result“(“With Lotito, guaranteed result”). Enough to trigger the laughter of the ten people present. For weeks, he criss-crossed the streets, visited more than 110 towns, discussed with thousands of people and organized several meetings in order to to exchange with the inhabitants to hear their claims. “He is a hard bone, a “ballbuster” who never lets go until he has the desired result.“, said of him Giancarlo Giorgetti, Minister of Economic Development.

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Touched by “human contact“whatever he may have had, Lotito has focused his program on health.”We must get Regional Health out of the rules imposed by Rome (…) I will work to increase the financial allocation, which is insufficient today“, he declared in particular. Other priorities: the accumulated delay of mobility systems, the depopulation of cities or even support for young people in the transition to professional life.

After having failed by nothing in his election in the region of Naples in March 2018, the native of Rome therefore hoped to take his revenge four years later. Since Sunday, it’s done. Supported by Forza Italia, he officially became a senator for Molise with 43% of the vote, ahead of Ottavio Balducci of the Five Star Movement (23.9%) and Rossella Gianfagna of the center left (23.7%). An ambition, not to say a dream, which finally comes true for him. “But I remain president of Lazio“, he warned in stride, assuring his “engagement” and his “support“. It must be said that one does not prevent the other, and these are not the examples that are lacking. The most striking remains certainly that of Silvio Berlusconi who, at 85, will again wear a double hat: senator and president of the Monza club, but Italian football is full of others: Dino Viola and Roma, Achille Lauro and Napoli, Vittorio Cecchi Gori and Fiorentina…

“He’s like a cowboy in the Wild West”

For those who don’t know Claudio Lotito, describing him would take “hours” if his knowledge of the Italian Football League is to be believed. The Roman leader, who was also also the owner of the Salernitana from 2011 to 2021 before having to sell her after her rise to the top flight, is indeed a personality as central as divisive in the small world of Calcio. His influence there is great, and his words important. His strong character does not really appeal to everyone, just like his outspokenness and his damn way of getting involved in everything.

Pots and pans behind him, he has tons of them. But it is clear that he is still there, despite the suspensions and the headwinds, even within his own club. Whether we like it or not, Lotito contributes perfectly to animate the daily folklore of transalpine football. “Calcio has always had colorful characters. From Moratti to Berlusconi, from Ferlaino to De Laurentiis via the Agnelli families in Juve and Sensi in Rome… Lotito is in this cast of those who have made or are making Italian football. He’s like a cowboy in the Wild West“, jokes a leader of one of the elite clubs.

One day in February 2015, the general manager of the Ischia club, who said he was being threatened by Lotito, did not hesitate to call him “the godfather of Calcio”. During the match-fixing scandal (“Calciopoli”) in 2006, Lazio, initially relegated to Serie B with Juventus and Fiorentina, finally came out of it with a 30-point withdrawal from the previous season (2005-2006), which cost him his qualification for the UEFA Cup, and 11 points for the next one.

With the tifosi of Lazio, the love story has always been tumultuous. His first two years (2004-2006) are even widely disputed, accusing him in particular of an almost manic attitude to put the club’s accounts back in place, then in the red. Directive, Lotito decides to change several historical figures of his club, and moreover refusing the possible return of Giorgio Chinaglia, legend of Lazio and eager to return as leader.

The following ? A more financially and sportingly stable club, with some trophies won (Italian Cup in 2008/09, 2012/13, 2018/19 and 3 Supercups in 2009, 2017, 2019). But also a lot of friction, with supporters blaming him for a lack of spending and ambition, they who have not seen their team win a single scudetto since 2000.

Ten thousand qualities and two faults

To sum up its former president, Angelo Peruzzi, former goalkeeper and team manager of the club, likes to take this formula: “He is someone who has ten thousand qualities and two faults: personally, I find him contemptuous and he thinks he is anointed by the Lord..”

In October 2021, the new senator, however, had to compose without the sacred authority of God when he was suspended for one year for violation of the health protocol against Covid-19, before it was reduced to two months by the Federal Court of Appeals. “But what does positive mean? Positive means contagious, right? Even in the vagina of women all over the world there are bacteria. But they are not all pathogens“, he had declared a year earlier in the midst of a pandemic. The controversy does not really scare him. In 2019, during the campaign against racism initiated by the Italian League, he considered the latter to be “too provocative“. Before backpedaling.

Behind the scenes, Claudio Lotito is currently waging a merciless war against Gabriele Gravina, the president of the Italian Football Federation. “His election to the Senate is not only political, but also sporting. The war on the Federation and Gravina will continue. He never forgot the theft of the Salernitana with the cash in hand“, estimated this week Michele Criscitiello, boss of the SportItalia group. “The personal and institutional relationship between the two men is not really good“, could we read in the columns of The newspaper this weeks.

Anyone who made a fortune by creating two companies in cleaning and catering generally places people in two very distinct boxes: friends or enemies. The in-between does not exist. “If you are on his side, he will do everything to protect and defend you. But if you are not there, he will know how to make you understand it through words and deeds. The wars of power and influence are continuous here“, concludes a source from the Italian Football League. Meanwhile, Claudio Lotito, who entered the “Senator’s Lounge” of Palazzo Madama in Rome, where the Senate of the Italian Republic has its seat, with the “visitor” pass since many years, will now be able to boast of wearing that of “senator”.