Italian soccer club receives severed pig head, threatening note in the mail

An Italian soccer club received a delivery in the mail that included a severed pig’s head and a threatening letter.

Sampdoria, a team in Italy’s Serie A, received the package that was delivered in a box to club headquarters this week from an unknown sender.

In the box was the pig head and a note addressed to former club president Massimo Ferrero and current club vice president Antonio Rome. The note read, “the next heads will be yours,” according to a club spokesman.

The soccer club called the police to report the delivery, the spokesman said.

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“UC Sampdoria expresses profound outrage and indignation in the face of yet another serious act of intimidation that took place this morning at the company headquarters in Piazza Borgo Pila,” the team wrote in a statement on Saturday.

“The company underlines that any type of attack on a member of the Board of Directors represents an attack on all its members, on their work and on the seriousness and abnegation with which they have approached this important position,” the statement continued.

This is not the first time the club has received a threatening package this year. In January a blank bullet was delivered to Sampdoria’s offices with threats targeting Ferrero and former club owner Edoardo Garrone.

Ferrero stepped down as club president in 2021 after he was arrested on financial charges resulting from a probe into alleged bankruptcy crimes. But his arrest was unrelated to club operations, allowing him to maintain control team through family holdings.

The 71-year-old has been criticized by fans who claim he is exhausting Sampdoria’s finances and refusing to sell the club to new owners who may be able to rescue it from financial and performance failures.

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Sampdoria’s performance this season has also frustrated fans, as the club holds the 19th spot in the Serie A table and in serious danger of relegation. The club has scored just 11 points through 23 matches and is eight points behind the current mark needed to stay up in Italy’s top league.

Menacing packages have previously been sent to other Italian clubs as well. The sporting director of Palermo received a goat’s head in 2006. And in 1999, the president of Reggina was delivered the head of a bull. 

Reuters contributed to this report.