April 16, 2011 – NEEP Holdings takes control of AS Roma

Jim Pallotta came from the North End and his partners from Everett and Peabody (NEEP) to begin an ambitious project that has kept AS Roma near the top of Italy’s Serie A. A major part of Pallotta’s goal to vault Roma into soccer’s elite includes building a stadium ( http://www.stadiodellaroma.com/en ) and several hurdles have been cleared in what has been described as potentially the biggest building project in Southern Europe.

Pallotta is not alone as a local investor in the game. Among the latest to buy in is Frank McCourt (Olympique Marseille), who hired Roma’s former coach, Rudi Garcia. That made Garcia one of the few coaches on the world stage to go from working for a North End guy to a Southie guy.

Here is a list of New England connections to soccer investment:

• Andrew Appleby – Derby County FC [England]
  • Bennington, Vt.-Springfield College/General Sports & Entertainment
• John Berylson – Millwall FC [England]
  • Brown University-Harvard Business School/Chestnut Hill Ventures
• William H.C. [Will] Chang – D.C. United
  • Harvard U./Westlake International Group
• Marcelo Claure – FC Bolivar [Bolivia]/Miami [MLS]
  • Bentley U./Brightstar Corp.-Sprint Corp.
• Nomar Garciaparra – L.A .FC [MLS]
• Peter Guber – L.A. FC [MLS]
  • Boston-Newton/Mandalay Entertainment
• Robert Kraft – NE Revolution [MLS]
• John Henry – Liverpool FC [England]
• Khaldoon Khalifa al Mubarak – Manchester City [England]
  • Tufts University
• Cam Neely – AS Roma [Serie A, Italy]
• Andrew Nestor – Bologna [Serie A, Italy]

Quincy-BC High-Boston University/Park Lane Sports Investment Bank

• Hoang [Henry] Nguyen – L.A. FC [MLS]
  • Harvard University ‘95/IDG Ventures
• James Pallotta – AS Roma [Italy]
  • Boston-Weston/Raptor Holdings
• Vince Volpe – Le Havre

Guilford, Conn/Dresser Rand/eCORP Int’l.

• Tony Jiantong Xia – Aston Villa [England]
  • MIT-Harvard/XWHO/Teamax/Recon Group

TODAY IN NEW ENGLAND SOCCER HISTORY