What is happening at Pro Recco?

After funding the club for over 19 years, Gabriele Volpi and Orlean Invest withdrew their financial support last week, leading to extreme uncertainty about the club’s future.

Why has this happened, and why is Pro Recco in such trouble? What does this mean for the future of our sport’s most successful club, its players, and the wider water polo community?

In this article, we attempt to answer these questions and provide some context to the complex and ongoing situation at Pro Recco.

The Key Points

Orlean Invest Withdrawal: On July 5, 2024, Orlean Invest and its chairman, Gabriele Volpi, withdrew their funding for Pro Recco, ending a 19-year period of support.

Financial Crisis: Without Orlean Invest’s financial backing, Pro Recco faces significant budget cuts, threatening its ability to pay players and maintain operations.

Potential Liquidation: Chairman Maurizio Felugo indicated the club is for sale and might face liquidation without new ownership.

Champions League Impact: The club has renounced its wild card for the Champions League (to avoid paying 25.000 euro to European Aquatics) and will need to qualify like other teams.

Player Exodus: Current players have been informed they can look for new teams, though some, like Francesco Di Fulvio, have committed to staying. It remains to be seen how many will follow Di Fulvio’s lead and accept a substantial wage cut.

Focus on Youth: Pro Recco will shift its focus to improving its junior sections, currently involving around eighty boys.

The Situation at Present

For nearly two decades, Pro Recco has been funded by Italian businessman Gabriele Volpi and Orlean Investments. During this time, the club received an undisclosed but highly lucrative amount of funding from Orlean Investments without the expectation of financial return. This support led Recco to unprecedented success, making it a juggernaut of European water polo.

However, on July 5th this year, Recco was shaken by Orlean Invest’s decision to withdraw all its funding, leaving Recco without the substantial financial backing it desperately needs. In essence, Volpi and Orlean have told Recco to stand on its own two feet, but the problem is the club likely won’t be able to do that, certainly not with the same financial power it had before.

After years of negative financial balances at the end of the each season, Volpi and his investment group decided it is the time to withdraw his support for the club. Company is now seeking to focus their activities on initiatives with a more significant and broader social impact than what Pro Recco currently provides.

What is Next for Pro Recco?

The only thing clear is that Pro Recco faces an extremely challenging foreseeable future.

First and foremost, Pro Recco must navigate through a severe financial crisis. The club needs a new owner, and quickly. Chairman Maurizio Felugo has spent the past days essentially advertising for a new owner, but this has so far been a fruitless task. Without an owner, it is unclear how Recco will fulfill all its operational and competitive obligations, from paying entry fees for the Italian and Champions League to covering pool hire, staff salaries, and its world-class roster.

Will Recco even be able to play next season? The club has already stated that participation in the Italian A1 is not in question. However, Felugo has warned that without a new owner, participation in the Champions League might be impossible.

Regarding Champions League participation, the club has already renounced its wild card, meaning if they enter the competition at all, they will need to go through the qualifying rounds like other teams who don’t have a benefit to pay for the wild card.

If Recco can’t pay its players, what sort of team can we expect to see them put out? The word from Recco is that current players have been allowed to find new teams, though some, like Francesco Di Fulvio, have admirably expressed loyalty to the club, come what may.

The club’s primary focus will now be on nurturing its junior sections, aiming to build a strong foundation for the future.

How Has It Come to This?

You might say that Recco has had the rug pulled from under its feet by Volpi and Orlean, blindsided by their owner’s shock decision. But that might be a generous interpretation.

The fact is, Recco has been run in an unsustainable way. They have received a lot of money and enjoyed competitive success with the ability to sign the best players and coaches in the world and pay them handsomely, but at what cost?

Recco, like many clubs across Europe, operates in a system that does not allow them to financially thrive. But could they not have explored ways to diversify their revenue streams rather than relying on one sole investor? Similarly, should other clubs that rely on similar support (most of the from local or state government) ask themselves the same questions?

Furthermore, the current focus on improving its junior sections to build a more sustainable future begs the question: why did the club not do this in any significant way when they had the chance?