SPORTING DIRECTOR ANTONELLI CONTRACT RENEWED. MOLINARO AND GUERRERO ALSO AGREE TO CONTINUE FOR LONG TERM. FOUNDATIONS ESTABLISHED FOR CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH

Venezia FC is delighted to announce the renewal of the contract of Sporting Director and General Manager Filippo Antonelli. The 46-year-old executive has signed a multi-year contract, which will bind him to the club until the end of the 2027/28 football season.

After concluding a 20-year career as a professional footballer Antonelli began his career as Sports Director at Aurora Pro Patria. In 2015, Antonelli moved to Monza to take a leadership role. During his tenure at Monza, Antonelli helped lead the club from Serie D to Serie A in just seven years.

After arriving in the lagoon in December 2022 as the sporting director and general manager, he reached the playoffs in the 2022/23 championship and then oversaw the historic promotion to Serie A the following season.

Filippo Antonelli, Sporting Director & General Manager Venezia FC
“The renewed confidence in me, in the technical area's staff and in the sports project, which began at the end of 2022, makes me proud and increasingly motivated to face the new challenges of the present and the future.
I'd like to thank the ownership group for valuing the work of the sporting area over these years and laying the foundation to build something important for the club and the city of Venice.
Balance, sustainability, sporting ambition, synergy with the Youth Sector led by Isaac Guerrero to develop young talent, and passion, should inspire us as we face the challenges ahead.
What we achieved last season is the result of teamwork and i thank the Technical Director Molinaro, the scouting team led by Antonio Cavallo, all the management and Massimo Borriello of HiSkill, an expert in sports management and performance, who has always been present in my strategic and management choices.
Now the Serie A awaits us and my intention, together with the whole club, is to make our fantastic fans proud of their VFC.
I especially want to thank our fans for their great passion, reminding all of us to be united and compact for our colors from the first match until the end!“

Venezia FC also announces the renewal of the contract of Technical Area Director Cristian Molinaro, who has signed a multi-year contract that goes through the 2027/28 season.
An former italian international with experience at Juventus, Stuttgard and others top clubs, Molinaro arrived in Venice in the 2019/20 season, first gaining promotion to Serie A as a player in the 2020/21 season and then as a manager in the 2023/24 season.

Cristian Molinaro, Technical Director Venezia FC
“I would like to thank the ownership group, first for believing in me - as a player - in 2020, and later for offering me the opportunity to start my journey as a manager.
This contract renewal is a token of their esteem, filling me with great satisfaction and further pushing me to grow as a manager and work day after day in this club.
Alongside sporting director Antonelli, together with the Scouting Area, Youth Sector and the entire Venezia FC staff, I am ready to continue the journey I've started two years ago, with the goal of making our fans happy and proud of us.
Forza Unione!“

Finally, Isaac Guerrero, the Technical Director and Head of the Methodology for Venezia FC's Youth Academy, has also extended his contract with Venezia FC until the end of the 2025/26 season, with an option for the 2026/27 season.
Having arrived at Venezia FC in 2021 from FC Barcelona, Guerrero will continue the work of growth and development of the youth sector in an integrated way with the technical project led by the arancioneroverde Sporting Director Filippo Antonelli, which in the last 3 years has seen more than 20 Youth Sector players wear the jersey of their national team, reaching also the playoff final with the Primavera team in the 23/24 season.

Isaac Guerrero, Technical Director and Head of Methodology of the Youth Sector of Venezia FC.
"I would like to thank the club's ownership group for the opportunity to continue the ambitious project of transforming Venezia FC's youth sector into a high-level professional reality. We will continue to work to ensure the club's talent development project is recognized throughout Italy for the profile and calibre of our players and the playing style of our teams. We are confident that in partnership with Sporting Director Antonelli and Tecnhical Director Molinaro we will develop players capable of contributing to Venezia FC's first team in the future."

Venezia FC has established a robust structure emphasising financial sustainability based on ambitious long term planning on the first team and a productive youth sector. With the infrasctructure developments in Ca' Venezia and the investments across the sporting sector, Venezia FC has established the foundations to develop into a top club in Italy.

President Duncan Niederauer added: "On behalf of the ownership group of Venezia FC, we are pleased to announce the important contract renewals of Antonelli, Molinaro and Guerrero. We are focused on building a solid and sustainable future for Venezia FC, and these long-term agreements with the leaders of our sporting area illustrate our commitment to achieving this objective."

Congratulations, Filippo, Cristian and Isaac.