MILAN - After landing at Milano Linate airport this evening, FC Internazionale president Erick Thohir answered questions put to him from the waiting journalists.
Do you have any comment on the statements given yesterday by Massimo Moratti?
"I spoke to Mr Moratti about everything. I talked to him this morning, when I landed in London. What I believe the misunderstanding comes from is that I never said anything about the club being unhealthy. What I said is that we need to be healthier – which is also what Mr. Moratti has said too – by creating more revenue. Because when you talk about, for example, the English Premier League, the three newly promoted clubs can reach revenues of 110 million pounds. And this is for the bottom three clubs. And so how do we compete? Of course we need to create more revenue. So this is what Moratti and I have spoken about. We need to make the club healthier in that area. We need to create more revenue, but not because Inter is unhealthy. Of course if someone attacks Inter then I will stand up for Inter as Moratti has done. And because of what we’re doing now we’re one of the good clubs: paying all of our players, we have no problems with transfer windows, we have good discussions with the banks, our suppliers, the agents. So this is what I think the mistake was about the 'healthy' things. But actually Mr Moratti and I have a similar understanding of what being healthy means. Because we need to create more revenue. So there’s no problem with these issues."
Do you think it’s normal for you and Massimo Moratti to have some differences in your philosophy as regards how the club is run?
"No, I don’t think so. Because since the beginning of our venture we’ve had an understanding. I don’t want to have 100% of the club. Because in every business I’ve had I’ve always had local partners. And to have Mr Moratti and his family as local partners is incredible. Because you then have an advantage in many countries. The Moratti family has a good name, they’re respectable, and then you have what he’s done with the club in the last 18 years. This is just my first step, and I don’t think I can compete. And I don’t want to be compared to him. I don’t think I can compete for the treble next season."
It’s good to clarify this situation. Are you confident about reinforcing the team for the future?
"When I was in Lisbon the media asked me this question. It all depends on the summer transfer market. For example, it’s not fair for me to say to the coach, ‘Coach Mazzarri, this is your target’, when we don’t even know who is going to be playing for us. And at the same time, I don’t want to promise anybody, the fans or our partners, a target that we cannot achieve. What we wanted this season, since the beginning of the season, was to get into Europe. And although we finished in 5th we still did it. I think that’s the most important thing. There was a belief in the club that we could have finished 4th, but we missed some chances."
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