Chievo, the perfect crime: Campedelli speaks out, “I considered suicide” | OneFootball

The former president reconstructs the rise and fall of the club that rewrote the geography of Italian football. Luca Campedelli speaks again, offering a powerful, painful, yet clear reconstruction.

“Chievo, the perfect crime”: Campedelli breaks the silence. “I thought about suicide, taking us down was easy”

The former patron of Chievo Verona, who led the club for nearly thirty years, presents the book “Chievo, the perfect crime,” a title that encapsulates an unrepeatable story: from the rise of a neighborhood club to the heights of Serie A, through the economic and sporting collapse that in 2022 erased the yellow and blues from professionalism.

A narrative that is not only a sports memory but also a denunciation, an analysis of the system, and a personal testimony of what really happened behind the scenes.

The fairy tale of Chievo: an anomaly in Italian football

Campedelli retraces the extraordinary journey of a club that overturned every geographical and economic logic.

In 1994, Chievo reached Serie B, and in 2001-2002, it arrived in Serie A, quickly becoming one of the most astonishing revelations in European football. Delneri's team even came close to qualifying for the Champions League, turning the Verona neighborhood into an international reference point for management, identity, and sustainability.

The president was then a 23-year-old, heir to the family owning the Paluani brand. A young, different figure capable of building a model that anticipated concepts now central, such as cost control, youth development, and managerial meritocracy.

“For Chievo, I thought about suicide”: the collapse and the silence

The 2022 failure left deep scars. Campedelli reveals for the first time the personal dimension of the trauma:

“For Chievo, I thought about suicide.”

Words that convey the weight of an event experienced as an injustice and as an identity, as well as economic disintegration. His book, he explains, is not an act of revenge but an attempt to rescue the narrative of Chievo from simplifications and slogans.

“I wanted to tell my truth, which is not what you have been told. I wasn't interested in reopening wounds, but I could no longer let others define what Chievo was.”

“We were alone. Taking us down was easy”

Campedelli points to solitude as the key to the downfall. Chievo, he says, had no political or financial protections:

“It was easy to take us down because we played football for football. There were no other interests behind it, neither political nor economic.”

Words that challenge the ecosystem of Italian football, still marked today by structural fragilities and opaque balances.

The rebirth with Pellissier and the identity that endures

Today, thanks to the commitment of former players and the Verona community, Chievo has restarted from Serie D with Sergio Pellissier as honorary president. A return that Campedelli observes with respect and distance, while leaving every door open for the future.

“We are two strong characters, but I never close doors. If tomorrow they told me that Chievo is there and needs a warehouseman, I would go even on foot.”

A phrase that encapsulates the sense of belonging of a man who intertwined his life with one of the most incredible—and most controversial—fairy tales of modern Italian football.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.