11 Apr 2015 19:43:16
ED007 I know you are not a big fan of Italian football but have you heard about little CARPI (yes right spelling not Capri the resort) who are leading Serie B and look set to be promoted but all the major Serie A team presidents are trying to find any loophole to stop them coming up the reason? they are a very small club with an even smaller ground capacity only 3,000 and an even smaller fan base so will not bring any big wealth into serie A, sadly meritocrasy is missing even in Italy, I hope they go up and stay up, let's all adopt wee CARPI as our italian team.

{Ed007's Note - Sorry it took so long to get back to you, Tim, I was hoping Ed008 was around as he would know a lot more about it all, you posting this is the first I've heard of it.}

1.) 12 Apr 2015
12 Apr 2015 17:03:57
A friend of mine sent me this message with the details about Carpi being denied promotion to Serie A. I fully expect them to solve the issue though and play in Serie A next season.
They've achieved 4 promotions in 5 seasons starting from the Semi-Pro Leagues amazing achievement.

"They may be denied promotion due to the fact that there ground can only hold up to 4500 people. As far as I know to be eligible to play in Serie A your ground must be able to hold around 15000.

That being said when Carpi do achieve promotion they will more than likely use Modena's stadium, which has the required capacity. However if the league were really dead set against Carpi being in the top flight they could declare Modena's ground not fit for the top flight and essentially leave Carpi homeless.

However that would be a pretty drastic measure considering Carpi would have reached Serie A on sporting merit rather than being back by some Billionaire."

Modena are asking for a lot of money to allow Carpi to use their stadium for next season if they are to be promoted.

{Ed007's Note - Cheers mate. (yes)

2.) 12 Apr 2015
12 Apr 2015 18:00:38
ED007 and ED008 thanks for the update, as to ground sharing that is what I heard also that the bigger teams would object that a) their own ground was not suitable or safe and b) they would object to them sharing another bigger ground. Story in Italy is it is all about money as wee Carpi will not generate any extra income for Seria A clubs and they will lose a bigger club to Serie B thus televsion money might be affected.But they deserve it on merit and what a fairytale it would be, surely the tv people can see the bigger picture here and back Carpi as I think the fans will get behind the small team and tv audiences may increase