The Singapore connection

Sampdoria is owned by three businessmen from Singapore with deep links to illegal sports operator FUN88. Why would the trio invest tens of millions of euro in a Serie B club with no chance of being profitable any time in the near future?

By Philippe Auclair

Genoa CFC is not the only club from the Ligurian capital to have had a turbulent ownership history in the recent past. Whilst the Grifone have had to deal with 777 Partners, as extensively reported on by Josimar, their neighbours, arch-rivals and co-residents at the Luigi Ferraris stadium UC Sampdoria have also ended up with new owners who might be even more problematic than the now moribund Miami investment firm. This, at a time when the club which Gianluca Vialli's goals took to the 1990-91 scudetto is enduring a torrid time in the Italian second tier and is in danger of being relegated to Serie C for the first time in its history. 

These new owners have, as Josimar has found out, deep links – and maybe even shared ownership – with one of Asia's best-know illegal(*) sports betting operators, FUN88, the current "Asian betting partner” of Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United FC. 

The Saviours
In late May 2023, three weeks after its demotion to Serie B, Sampdoria was taken over by a consortium led by Italian businessmen Andrea Radrizzani, still the majority owner of Leeds United at the time (*), and Matteo Manfredi. Others had tried to rescue the club after its previous owner, film producer Massimo Ferrero,

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