Fienga discusses Dzeko, Fonseca and more

After welcoming the World Cup-winning winger to the club, Fienga also took the opportunity to answer questions on a number of topics - ranging from recent events in Serie A to speculation surrounding the club's sporting director role.

Here's what Fienga had to say...

The president of Italian football, Gabriele Gravina, has already spoken about Roma's 3-0 forfeit against Hellas Verona – saying that Roma have little hope of a successful appeal. Even the president of the FIGC’s Appeal Court has had his say on the issue. What do you make of it?

“Clearly the issue is based on a mistake we made in good faith – there was absolutely no advantage gained by Roma, because it did not lead to additional players being registered, or players that were not eligible to be registered being included. That’s what happened with the Sassuolo incident, which some have compared it to – but these are two very different incidents.

“At the core of it, we maintain that Roma should have the right to defend itself. Hearing governing body representatives, or even the president of the court that will judge the case, expressing opinions ahead of hearing the case they will be judging – even answering on the topic with a certain amount of irony – it’s a bit surprising, because it seems like the right to defend oneself has been compromised or even rendered almost pointless.

“I repeat, saying straight away that there is no chance [of a successful appeal] seems to be equating an error with a willful decision and legally that is not the case. We are disappointed about what we have heard, we maintain that we have at least a legal right to defend ourselves. We maintain that the Sassuolo case was completely different and we hope that the eventual appeal judgement will be made with impartiality and calm, showing the same respect that we have always shown for the governing bodies and the justice system.”

The new owners have arrived and the search is on for a new sporting director – and there are a lot of rumours about [Fabio] Paratici. Also, how do you respond to the reports about Fonseca?

“Let’s clear up things about the coach immediately. Fonseca is not and has never been a topic of discussion within the club. Fonseca is our coach, our project with him began last season – a project that was based on building a young squad, with a young coach who has already got a lot of quality, who needed to learn all the elements of our league. And now we begin a new season with an extra year of experience behind us. We really don’t understand why there is this sort of ongoing discussion. I repeat: there is not and has never been an open discussion about Fonseca.

“As far as the sporting director goes, it’s clear that it is a vacancy for the club and it’s a role that, first and foremost, should be filled by someone that we judge to be the most competent and most aligned with the philosophy and the project of this club – which has just been reinforced by new owners. That project is to build a squad with talented young players, helping them to eventually grow into great players like Pedro.

“I’ve heard Paratici mentioned, and think it is incredibly disrespectful both to him and to the club he works for to make these type of comments. As far as I’m concerned Paratici is the sporting director of our rivals and that’s it. We hope to beat them on Sunday and then shake hands afterwards. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

You said that Edin Dzeko would remain the captain of Roma for as long as he wanted to be. Have you changed your mind on that? How will things be now with him, after the transfer that didn’t happen?

“At least on this I think we can reiterate and underline what we’ve said before: Dzeko is our captain, we are happy that he is our captain and we are happy that he will remain our captain.

“As far as Edin goes we know his quality, his professionalism and we are sure that if he plays on Sunday he will give his full efforts. We hope that all these rumours will only give him even more motivation – but he doesn’t need that, because we all know what he does out there on the pitch.”