– Why Como? Mirwan Suwarso has been asked countless times. Como has been a celebrity paradise since George Clooney bought a villa there in 2002. The idyllic lake attracts 1.4 million tourists a year, including presidents, aristocrats, Taylor Swift, Brad Pitt and Jay Z. None of them have gone there for the football . HAPPY IN ITALY: Hollywood star George Clooney with his wife Amal Clooney. The former has been holidaying at Lake Como since the beginning of the 2000s. Photo: AFP The Como football team has gone bankrupt twice since 2004. One owner ran away in the middle of the night. In 2016, the club was disbanded, rebuilt, placed on level four and sold at auction. – It seemed like a parody of a football club, says Per Asbjørn Solberg. Solberg is the presenter of Avanti, a show on Fotball.TV about Italian football, and has seen many owners run teams in the ditch. Even he opened his eyes in 2019, when Como was bought by the company Djarum from Indonesia. Djarum is owned by tobacco barons Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono. The brothers are among the world’s 80 richest people, according to Forbes magazine, with a combined fortune of over NOK 500 billion. Overnight Como got the richest owners in Italian football. – Then it was assumed that things would happen, says Solberg. But again… Why Como? Bought the club by mistake Mirwan Suwarso leans back on the sofa. He is the head of Mola, an Indonesian streaming channel owned by the Hartono brothers, and is directing Como’s development. Via webcam, he tells news that the acquisition was actually a mistake. PROMOTED: Mirwan Suwarso (left) and Como CEO Francesco Terrazzani during a Serie B match. Photo: Reuters Djarum didn’t buy Como because it was in a holiday paradise, or because Hollywood’s A-listers hang out there, or because the home ground, Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia, is so close to the lake that a clearance could send the ball into the water. The plan was to use Como as a platform for young Indonesian players in Europe. The Southeast Asian island nation has 280 million people who love soccer, but few of them are good at playing. By sending the most promising to Italy, Mola was to spearhead Indonesia’s sporting development. And then they were going to make a TV show about it. Como is close to Milan, where Mola is based in Italy. Mola did not want a “normal” football club. Since this was going to be TV, they wanted a narrative. Suwarso read up on the team that played at the top level in 2003, before bankruptcy and chaos ensued. – We thought: Okay, this is a good story. Let’s drive on, says Suwarso. Then he discovered the problem. When the papers were signed, Suwarso learned that Italian teams below the top division were not allowed to sign players from outside the EU. No Indonesian could go to Como until the team was in Serie A, and then they had to be promoted twice. Does Como have a football team? Although Como had climbed up to level three, the team was as frail as the Stadio Sinigaglia, a dilapidated lump of concrete with holes in the roof. Several locals did not know which division the team belonged to, according to Nicoletta Battaglini, from the Pesi Massimi fan group. – Some people in the city didn’t even know that Como had a football team, says Battaglini to news. IDYL: A cyclist in the village of Argegno on Lake Como. Photo: AP Now the new owners were left with a club without a plan. The fans stood with new owners that nobody knew, from a country few knew much about. Suwarso remembers the questions. – Nobody knew who we were. What are we doing here? Do we care? Do we know what we are doing? Italian football fans had seen another Indonesian businessman, Erick Thohir, own the big team Inter from 2013 to 2018, without sporting success. – For people in Como, trusting people is generally far behind, says Battaglini. The owners decided to make a show about how to run a football club. Then it helps that the team wins, and Solberg noted that Como brought in players who should be able to take them up to level two, i.e. Serie B. LOAN SIGNING: The Como players warm up before a Serie A match against Bologna. Maximo Perrone, with jersey number 23, is on loan from the big club Manchester City. Photo: Reuters Only four of Serie C’s 60 teams move up. But with a little money it is possible. – The step up to Serie A is enormous, because the financial difference is so great. In Serie C, teams go bankrupt all the time, says Solberg. Como needed a season in Serie C to build up the team. In 2021, at the second attempt, the team moved up to Serie B. Now that they were one division away from the elite, the owners changed course. It was time to make money. Employed a homeless Mola turned his gaze from TV to business. They wanted to build up the club financially and strengthen ties with the city. So they brought in a new general manager named Dennis Wise. If you watched English football in the 90s, you know that this was a surprising choice. As a player, Wise was one of the greatest warriors in an era full of pointed elbows, straight knuckles and hip-high tackles. The Chelsea legend had a short career as a coach, and an even shorter stint as director at Newcastle, which ended in 2009. But Mola ran an academy program called Garuda Select, where Indonesian players would train in Europe, and Wise was involved. Now the man from Kensington was to become general manager of Como, without being able to say much more in Italian than “ciao”. CHELSEA HERO: Dennis Wise during a match for Chelsea in 1999. The midfield warrior captained the London club for a number of years. Photo: REUTERS In the documentary about Como, Wise walks around the Stadio Sinigaglia and points out where people have painted walls in the team’s colours. He tries to chat with the man in charge of the grass – an Italian word here, an English word there. As Wise strolls down a corridor inside the stadium, the lights go out. – The bill has probably not been paid, says Wise. Como debuted with 13th place in Serie B in the 2021–22 season. They won more off the field. The town itself is full of working-class people, and Battaglia says the owners got a lot of fans on their side when they donated a large sum to a local hospital during the pandemic. Wise told the British newspaper The Mirror that he himself gave money to a local cinema that was closing down. One day, says Wise, he was downtown when he saw a homeless guy washing the streets. The sidewalk was paved, so Wise asked him to meet at the stadium at three o’clock. A few hours later, the guy was hired as Como’s caretaker. – He thought I was crazy at first, Wise told The Mirror. But Como was still a curious project that few knew about. In the summer of 2022, they made the coup that put them on the international football map: They signed Cesc Fàbregas. Playing owner Cesc Fàbregas has been one of the world’s best playmakers for the past 15 years. The brilliant Spaniard has won the European Championship and the World Cup, and played for Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona. Now the world champion was to play at Stadio Sinigaglia in Serie B. – What the hell, thought 99% of fans and press. ON THE COACHING BENCH: Former football star Cesc Fàbregas, with clubs such as Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea on his CV, is Como’s coach. He is also a co-owner. Photo: Reuters As always, there was an explanation. Fàbregas had holidayed in Como as a guest at the ridiculously luxurious Villa d’Este. The month before he had been to a wedding in town. Como’s owners knew his agent, Darren Dein, son of David Dein, who was vice-chairman of Arsenal when Fàbregas played there. They gave Fàbregas shares in the club. Playing co-owner. Then Fàbregas was joined by a former teammate, Thierry Henry, the French great goalscorer who has a statue outside Arsenal’s home ground. He joined as a co-owner and unofficial adviser. ADVISOR: Football legend Thierry Henry is a co-owner of Como. He also contributes as an advisor. Photo: Reuters Suddenly most people had heard of the football team Como. For Fàbregas, who was 35 years old, the club was ideal to wind down his career as a player and begin his career as a coach. But even with such a good passing foot, the team came in a new 13th place in Serie B in 2022–23. That same summer, Fàbregas quit. Reaching Serie A didn’t seem so easy after all. – I hardly see my family Fàbregas remained as coach of the U19 team. When Como limped out of the starting blocks the following season, coach Moreno Longo was sacked, and Fàbregas took over the helm. But he lacked his coaching licence, so Como brought in Welshman Ossian Roberts to coach out the season, with Fàbregas as his assistant. In January, Fàbregas told Sky Sports that he was at work from 7.30am to 8.30pm. – I hardly see my family, he said. PROMOTED: Cesc Fàbregas officially became head coach of Como this summer. Photo: Reuters But the role gave Fàbregas almost the same feeling as when he played in the Champions League under the floodlights. Tactically, he gave the team a more attacking style of play, inspired by coaches such as Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and Roberto De Zerbi. Como struck a chord by signing a bunch of players with experience from Serie A. Among them was Patrick Cutrone, a striker born in Como who had flopped at English Wolves, then lost his father. Cutrone was back in Como to find himself, knocking in goals in Serie B. BARGAIN: Milan product Patrick Cutrone was signed by Como in 2022. He has four goals in 12 games so far in the Serie A season. Photo: AP Como gradually climbed towards the top of the table, and in the last round they secured promotion at home at Stadio Sinigaglia with a 1-1 draw against Cosenza. For the first time in 21 years, Como was in Serie A. Now everyone knew which division Como belonged to. That same evening, 10,000 people celebrated downtown, according to Battaglini. – It was incredible, because usually only the fans care about the football team. Now it is suddenly important to everyone. According to The Times newspaper, one of the celebrants was Como’s mayor, Alessandro Rapinese, who said: – With mountains, the lake and football, what more could you ask for? Cheered on by Spider-Man The same is now being asked by Suwarso, who wants to make Como the premier luxury football destination in the world. – Anyone can buy a football team. Few can buy a football team by a lake that attracts several million tourists every year. In Milan and Paris, says Suwarso, football fights with the churches and museums. In Como it’s just the lake and the team. Mola has used his contacts to invite celebrities to matches, and in the stands we have seen actors such as Andrew Garfield (Spider-Man), Kate Beckinsale (Underworld) and Hugh Grant (everything). CELEBRITY: Como has attracted several celebrities to its matches, including Kate Beckinsale. Photo: AP How important are such guests to Como? Suwarso shrugs. – I don’t know. They just keep coming. This summer, the team brought in Sergi Roberto and Raphaël Varane from Barcelona and Manchester United respectively, teams that normally hardly bother to pick up the phone if they are called by a newly promoted team in Serie A. – To put it this way: It was none of the others the newly promoted teams who were queuing up to sign Varane, says Solberg. But Como does not spend huge sums on players. Suwarso says that the club will go around by itself. The gold mine is located elsewhere in the city. – It’s like Disneyland, he says. The plan is for tourists to leave money with Djarum’s other investments, including summer camps, soccer schools, local brands, and a brewery that filters beer through silk. – We want to create an ecosystem that goes around, regardless of the team, says Suwarso. They still have a job to do at Stadio Sinigaglia, the team’s home ground since 1927. Como played the first three games of the season away because it took so long to refurbish the facility. The capacity was expanded to 10,500, on the border with the minimum requirement in Serie A. But the number one priority is to keep the team in the top division. – I expect them to survive, says Solberg. FIGHT FOR THE EXISTENCE: Como is in 15th place in Serie A after 12 league games. The bottom three teams out of a total of 20 teams move down to level two. Photo: AP At the time of writing, Como are relegated, but the bottom battle is even, and Solberg predicts that they will strengthen the team in January. Battaglini also believes that Como is defending the place. If she is wrong, she believes that the owners will take them back to the elite anyway. – If we move down, I don’t think it’s a tragedy, says Battaglini. That part of the story about Como seems to be over.
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Football in paradise – Sport Langlesing
