American executive Charlie Stillitano to become president of Italian team Spezia following takeover

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Charlie Stillitano, an American sports executive who was once the general manager of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars and has worked most recently as a soccer events promoter, is to become president of the board of directors of Italian Serie B team Spezia after the club was acquired by the U.S. businessman Thomas Roberts on Wednesday.

La Spezia is a port city in Italy, located by the Ligurian sea between Genoa and Pisa and situated around 138 miles away from Milan. The team is currently placed 3rd in the second tier of Italian football with five games of the regular season to play. The top two teams are promoted automatically into Serie A but Spezia, who are seven points behind second-place Pisa, are more likely to compete in the play-offs, between the 3rd and 8th-place teams, as they attempt to secure the final place in the Italian top flight. Spezia spent three seasons in Serie A before being relegated in 2023.

Stillitano told The Athletic on Tuesday night the takeover is not contingent on the team achieving immediate promotion to Serie A. He said they have an ambition to establish Spezia as a “solid” Serie A team in the medium-to-long term.

Spezia’s last two ownerships have also been from overseas, with Robert Platek, a partner at the U.S. private equity firm MSD capital, buying the club in 2021, before selling it to Paul Francis’ F32 Holdings Inc. only two months ago.

Now the club has shifted hands once again, with Roberts acquiring Spezia. Long-standing private equity investor Roberts told The Athletic: “I can confirm that I will be purchasing the club with personal resources. Charlie Stillitano will be representing me in this investment and representing me on the board of directors as President of the club.”

Spezia last played in the Italian top flight in the 2022-23 season (Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)

He added that funds from his company Equality Asset Management would not be involved with the purchase of the club. North American interest in Italian football has been rising with eight Serie A teams owned by Americans: Milan, Inter, Atalanta, Fiorentina, Parma, Roma, Venezia and Verona. Bologna is owned by Canadian Joey Saputo.

For Stillitano, it marks a return to club football after becoming known to soccer fans as a radio presenter on Sirius FM in recent years and also an events organizer and promoter, particularly for major European clubs who wish to play pre-season tours in the United States. It is through this pursuit that he became a close friend of some of football’s most illustrious names, with Manchester United icon Sir Alex Ferguson, Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti and former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho all speaking glowingly about Stillitano to The Athletic last summer for a profile about his career. Stillitano said that Ferguson and Real Madrid chief executive Jose Angel Sanchez offered him their views on taking on the Spezia role. He said: “There was this genuine feeling for me that it’s good to be back and to be really at the heart of the game.”

In the mid-1990s, Stillitano became Major League Soccer’s first employee as the New York/New Jersey MetroStars’ (now the New York Red Bulls) general manager. While at the MetroStars, he recruited famous names such as Roberto Donadoni, but the team finished last in two of its first four seasons before his departure. He more recently worked as executive chairman of Relevent Sports, an events and marketing company owned by the billionaire Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, before departing amid a now resolved legal dispute in 2021. He is currently president of TEG Sport for North America, the umbrella Manchester United were brought under to play Liverpool in South Carolina last summer in pre-season.

His return to club football has come due to a personal connection with Roberts, who he coached playing soccer while the pair were at Princeton University in the 1980’s. Stillitano had already become a board member at Spezia earlier this year due to relationships with existing club personnel.

Stillitano told The Athletic: “A few weeks back, we heard rumors on the street that they were looking for investors. I sent a little note to my friend, Tom Roberts. When (future USMNT coach) Bob Bradley was the coach of Princeton and I was his assistant, Tom was the goalkeeper for us. He got back to me, said he had an interest and he wanted to do this personally. All his kids play soccer or lacrosse, they’re all athletes and I think he likes the idea of being involved with an Italian soccer team.”

While Stillitano will become president, the bulk of the executive staff will remain at the club, with the new ownership seeking consistency. Stillitano said: “We don’t want to change anybody, honestly. We’ve met everyone. They’re wonderfully honest people.”

Stillitano said the club has stability due to its 12,000-seater stadium and a state-of-the-art training complex, both of which are long term lease agreements on generous terms.

Alberto Picco Stadium has been home to Spezia and their fans since 1919 (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)

He added: “We think the organization is really well-run. It’s punching way above their weight as far as teams spending money goes. They’re very modest. They’re in third place. You’ve got to give the manager and the players credit, the sporting directors too. We’re not here to change things. We’re here to learn, get going.

“There’s so much upside in this club, everything from youth development to stadium naming rights, to concerts. This is in a seaside town and you have a stadium by the water that the cruise ships come into. The bus in front of the stadium takes you from there to Cinque Terre. There’s got to be different things that can be done and this is what somebody like Tom (Roberts) looks at. It is about building a business.”

As for the goals, Stillitano says he wants to be “careful.”

“We don’t have any illusions that we’re going to be Juventus or Milan,” he insisted.

He referenced the rise of Como, a team with a 7,000-seater stadium who are now in Serie A, and a dream in the long term to emulate Atalanta, the 2023-24 Europa League winners, who he cited as a model example of how to grow a club.

Stillitano concluded: “If we’re going to do pie in the sky, to have a team that is really a solid team in Serie A, and if we aspire to be like Atalanta… that is not easy, and what they’ve done is remarkable, but if you’re going to have a goal, you might as well go for it.”

(Top photo: Jan Kruger/Getty Images for Soccerex)

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