To the media, to our supporters, and to the entire Famiglia Viola,

There are seasons that are measured by the table, and there are seasons that are measured by the heart. This season tested our patience, our pride, and our unity. We know very well that Fiorentina must have higher standards, stronger performances, and ambitions worthy of this club’s history. But even in a season of suffering, there is one truth that must be spoken clearly: this club did not abandon itself. It kept working. It kept believing. And in the hardest moment, it found the strength to stand again.

For me and for my family, this season was also painful in a much deeper way because it came during the passing of my father, Rocco B. Commisso. Anyone who knew my father knew how much Fiorentina meant to him and how strongly he believed in this club, this city, and its people. In the most difficult days, I thought often about the strength he showed throughout his life, the sacrifices he made, and the values he taught us: never surrender, stay united, and keep building even when the road is hard. His spirit remains with us at Fiorentina, at the Rocco B. Commisso Viola Park, and in the responsibility we have to keep moving this club forward with courage, dignity, and love.

First of all, I want to speak directly to our supporters. You were asked to suffer too much this year, and yet you never stopped loving these colors. In the cold nights at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, in the long silences after painful results, in the songs that still rose from the stands, you reminded everyone what Fiorentina truly is. Fiorentina is not only a team. Fiorentina is belonging. Fiorentina is family. Fiorentina is Florence itself: proud, passionate, demanding, and full of soul. For that, you deserve not only thanks, but respect. Because the love of our supporters is not decoration around this club. It is the soul of this club. And everything we do must honor that love.

At the toughest point of the season, I believed Fiorentina needed a major and necessary change in its sporting organization, not a small adjustment, but a real step forward to give us the best chance to escape the relegation threat and begin rebuilding with greater strength. During those difficult weeks, as my father’s health was declining and the pressure on the club was at its highest, I was the first to ask that Fiorentina bring in a top-level sporting director. It was a decision made in a time of great personal pain and great sporting difficulty, but it was the right decision for the club. I am glad we had the courage to make that change when Fiorentina needed it most.

That is why I want to give a very special thanks to Fabio Paratici. In one of the darkest moments of the season, his experience, his calm, and his work had a major impact on this club. He helped guide Fiorentina out of a situation that was not worthy of our history and not acceptable for our ambitions. For that, I am deeply grateful to him. I also want to recognize Alessandro Ferrari, our General Manager, who worked with seriousness, balance, and dedication during an extremely difficult period for the club. My thanks also go to Paolo Vanoli, to our players, and to every member of the staff who kept fighting every day when the pressure was high and the margin for error was gone.

I also want to dedicate a special thought to Fabiano Parisi. All of us at Fiorentina are with him, and we look forward to seeing him back on the pitch soon with the same energy, courage, and enthusiasm he has always shown in this shirt.

What this group achieved should not be forgotten. When Paolo Vanoli arrived in Florence on November 7, 2025, Fiorentina were bottom of the Serie A table, with only four points after ten matches and still without a single victory. No team in Serie A history had ever avoided relegation from those circumstances. Yet this group found the strength to change its destiny, becoming the first team in Serie A history to secure survival after failing to win any of its opening 15 league matches. These are not just statistics. They are a portrait of character. They are a portrait of unity. They are a portrait of a club that refused to surrender. 

And that is why this season must be understood in the right way. It was not the season we wanted. It was not the season our supporters deserve. But it became a season that revealed something important about the spirit inside this club. When fear grew, this group stayed together. When doubt grew, this group kept working. When the noise outside became louder, this group searched for strength inside the dressing room, inside the training ground, and inside the badge on the chest.

Belief did not return all at once. It returned little by little. It returned in a point earned when many expected defeat. It returned in a recovery run, in a save, in a tackle, in a player sacrificing for the teammate beside him. It returned when people stopped looking only at the table and started looking into each other’s eyes. That is how difficult seasons are changed. Not with speeches alone. Not with excuses. But with honesty, discipline, and unity.

That is also why I want to say something important today: survival cannot be the destination of Fiorentina. It must be the point from which we rise again. We must take the pain of this season, learn from it, and use it to build a stronger future. We owe that to our supporters. We owe that to this city. And we owe that to everyone who has worked for Fiorentina with love and sacrifice.

The clearest sign of that future is already in front of us. Congratulations to our Fiorentina Primavera for winning the Campionato Primavera 1 and bringing this title back home for the first time since 1983. Congratulations as well for winning the 2026 Viareggio Cup World Football Tournament Coppa Carnevale. These are not only trophies. They are signs. They are proof that when a club invests seriously in young people, protects them, teaches them, and believes in them, the future starts to answer. I am very proud of our young players, our coaching staff, and every person inside the club who helped make these achievements possible. I know Rocco would be very proud, and all of Fiorentina should give this team a very special round of applause.   

This is why youth development means so much to me. It is important for Fiorentina, and it is important for Italian football. Our vision, and the vision shared deeply by my father, has always been to invest in our children and in our youth so that Fiorentina can help produce great players, strong people, and a stronger future for the game in this country. The Rocco B. Commisso Viola Park is not simply a training center. It is a home for growth. It is a school of values. It is a symbol of the kind of club we want Fiorentina to be.  

When we invest in youth, we invest in more than tomorrow’s lineup. We invest in identity. We invest in continuity. We invest in the possibility that a young player who learns here will one day walk onto the pitch at the Franchi understanding exactly what these colors mean to the people of Florence. That matters on a sporting level, and it matters on a human level. For Fiorentina, this is not only one important project among many. It is one of the most important choices we can make for the long-term strength and stability of the club.

The same vision guides our commitment to the stadium. We have formally confirmed our intention to continue working with the City of Florence on the completion of the modernization of the Stadio Artemio Franchi. Our objective is simple and sincere: to give Fiorentina supporters a beautiful home worthy of their passion, to create an exceptional matchday experience worthy of this city, and to build a stronger and more sustainable future for the club. A modern stadium is not only about bricks and concrete. It is about pride. It is about belonging. It is about giving our supporters a home that reflects the beauty of Florence and the dignity of these colors. 

When a club can generate more revenue in the right and responsible way, it creates more capacity to reinvest in the future of the club: in the squad, in the academy, in the supporter experience, and in the long-term competitiveness of Fiorentina. That is how we should think about the Franchi. We want a stadium that honors Florence, respects our supporters, and helps Fiorentina become stronger year after year. This must be our home, and it must be a home our people can be proud of for many years to come. 

As we approach the 100^th Anniversary of Fiorentina, I feel this responsibility even more deeply. One hundred years of history is not only a moment to celebrate what came before us. It is a responsibility to build what comes next. History is not something to place behind glass. History is a torch that one generation places in the hands of the next. Our task is not only to admire Fiorentina’s story. Our task is to be worthy of continuing it. 

As we look ahead, I want Fiorentina to move forward with courage, belief, and ambition. Great clubs are not built by words alone. They are built by vision, discipline, sacrifice, and the daily responsibility to honor the shirt. We will not think small. We will not allow difficult moments to define the future of this club. Our dreams must be worthy of Florence, and our work must be worthy of those dreams. We must build with responsibility, compete with pride, and fight every day to make the Fiorentina family proud. That is the spirit we must carry into the future.

And so let me close with a message that comes from the heart. Believe in Fiorentina. Believe in the work. Believe in the young people who are growing in these colors. Believe in the foundations we are building. Believe that pain can become strength, that unity can become progress, and that Florence can always give beauty and meaning to these colors.

This season gave us a lesson that should stay with us: when we stood together, we endured. When we believed together, we changed our destiny. And when we fight together, Fiorentina has a future that can honor its history.

Never divided. Never resigned. Always Viola.

Sempre Forza Viola.