The Italian basketball powerhouse that cheated its way to championships

Montepaschi Siena used to be the dominant force in Italian basketball, winning over and over again. Yet, the club broke the law for several years, which sent the once-almighty Montepaschi into obscurity.

In the home city of the world’s oldest still-operating bank, basketball has been played for nearly 100 years, but the 20th century did not bring any significant results. Occasionally, the team reached the playoffs of the Italian championships, and sometimes, they made it to European competitions. Still, generally, they fluctuated between different league levels.

In 1994, the club established itself in the championship and was not relegated for years. The next good news came around the turn of the century when Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena – the world’s oldest bank – became the team’s main sponsor.

With the arrival of financial backing, the club, which had changed its name from Mens Sana Basket to Montepaschi Siena, entered its most glorious era, where success came quickly as the bankers poured significant amounts of money into the team.

Among others, they attracted one of Europe’s most talented young head coaches, Ergin Ataman, who has since become a EuroLeague legend. In 2002, the Turk led Montepaschi to win the Saporta Cup, marking the club’s first-ever title.

The great turnaround in 2013

Montepaschi’s rise to the top of European basketball was rapid. In the two seasons following the Saporta Cup triumph, they reached the EuroLeague Final Four and won their first Italian Supercup and championship title.

Their consistent presence among the top teams in Europe further demonstrated the club’s strength. Between 2000 and 2014, they reached the EuroLeague Final Four four times and won eight Italian championships.

Today, only six of these titles remain.

It must be noted that Montepaschi did not rule Italy solely thanks to a well-funded team. Of course, money played its part, but Siena was the top dog even when its budget was significantly decreased.

The prime example is the 2012/13 season. Despite having less money than before, the results were still impressive, although Montepaschi’s EuroLeague season ended at the top 16 stage, while in the domestic league, they finished the regular season in fifth place.

It was a disappointing outcome by Montepaschi’s standards, even though they were led by a new head coach, Luca Banchi, who took over the reign from Siena-born Simone Pianigiani and had to deal with several key players leaving in the offseason.

However, Montepaschi managed to turn their season around in the playoffs. They won a seven-game series against Milan and Varese before toppling Acea Romi 4-1 in the finals.

The season that looked doomed at the beginning of Spring brought Montepaschi their seventh consecutive Italian championship title.

But not all that glitters is gold.

Montepaschi lost five titles

Despite running the show in Italy, the club went bankrupt the following summer. Yes, you read that correctly. One of Europe’s strongest teams, which had dominated their league and performed well in European competitions, went into obscurity in early July 2014 because they were in debt.

The sponsor did not want to bail Montepaschi out of their 5.4 million euro hole, which should have been pocket change for the backing bankers. The problem, however, was that the team’s sponsor had been losing enormous amounts of money in previous years and tried to hide it cleverly. Still, everything came to light at the beginning of 2013, and the company’s stock price fell like a rock. Eventually, they turned to the government, which saved the bank from collapse.

According to Montepaschi, the bank’s new management stopped supporting the club without warning, finally bringing the team to its knees in the summer of 2014. So much so that the Mens Sana sports club took over the basketball team and registered it in Italy’s fourth-tier league.

They began playing there just a few months after battling for their eighth consecutive Italian championship. They lost to Milan, which had hired Banchi as its head coach.

However, Montepaschi’s fall from grace did not happen just because of the weaselly bankers. The first warning signs that something significant was happening with the club appeared in December 2012 when the Siena prosecutor’s office announced that the club’s CEO and president, Ferdinando Minucci, and his colleagues were under investigation. Minucci resigned and was arrested six months later, along with three other team members. They were suspected of accounting and fiscal fraud.

In October 2016, following an investigation into the fraud, the Italian Basketball Federation stripped Montepaschi of its 2012 and 2013 Italian championship and cup titles and the 2013 Supercup. In addition, six high-ranking officials within the club were banned from Italian basketball either permanently or temporarily.

Who knows what the future holds, but it is hard to see Siena ruling Italian basketball again. Mens Sana has focused on developing young players and currently operates in a regional league representing the fifth tier of the Italian league system.