Sergio Cragnotti (; born 9 January 1940, in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

) is an Italian entrepreneur and author. One of the most high-profile and wealthy business figures in Italy in recent times, Cragnotti is best known for having been President of S.S. Lazio. However, his most influential position was as head of food conglomerate

Cirio Cirio S.p.A. (''Cirio Società per Azioni'') is a major Italian food company. It was founded in 1856 in Turin, Italy. They also sponsored S.S.C. Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli (), is an Italian pro ...

. This company included all Cirio food brands as well as those of the acquired ''Del Monte Foods International'' from the late 1990s. In 1992 Cragnotti bought football team S.S. Lazio from previous owner Calleri. In December 1993, the

Ontario Securities Commission The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) is a regulatory agency which administers and enforces securities legislation in the Canadian province of Ontario. The OSC is an Ontario Crown agency which reports to the Ontario legislature through the ...

fined him for

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider informati ...

. The Cragnotti family owned 80% of the Cirio group which in turn owned a 51% stake in the Roman club. In 2002, the Cirio company declared default on its bonds. The default cost about 1.125 million euros to a plethora of

small investors Small may refer to: Science and technology * SMALL, an ALGOL-like programming language * Small (anatomy), the lumbar region of the back * ''Small'' (journal), a nano-science publication * <small>, an HTML element that defines smaller text ...

, most of them Italian. Cragnotti presided over perhaps the most successful period in Lazio's recent history, plowing in record amounts of money which attracted notable athletes

Pavel Nedvěd Pavel Nedvěd (; born 30 August 1972) is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is regarded as one of the most successful players to emerge from the Czech Republic, winning domestic and European accolades with Ital ...

Christian Vieri Christian "Bobo" Vieri (; born 12 July 1973) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a centre forward. Having been born in Italy, Vieri moved with his family to Australia as a child, before returning to Italy to pursue his p ...

and Marcelo Salas. His successes included winning both

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

along with the final European

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

, both under the guidance of close friend,

Sven-Göran Eriksson Sven-Göran Eriksson (; born 5 February 1948) is a Swedish football manager and former player. After an unassuming playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management between 1977 and 2001, winning 18 ...

. In November 2006 he published his autobiography, titled ''Un calcio al cuore'', co-written with Fabrizio Pennacchia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cragnotti, Sergio 1940 births Living people Italian businesspeople Confidence tricksters