FLORENCE, Italy (AP) — Rocco Commissofrank Owner of Italian soccer club Fiorentina The chairman of New York-based Mediacom Communications has died. He was 76 years old.
Fiorentina and Mediacom announced Commisso’s death early Saturday morning without specifying the cause.
“After a long recovery, our beloved president has left us. Today, we all mourn his death,” Fiorentina said. “His love for Fiorentina was the greatest gift he gave himself.”
After building Mediacom into one of the largest cable television companies in the United States, Commisso bought Fiorentina in 2019 and became known for speaking out against Italy’s bureaucracy and inability to build a new stadium.
Commisso was born in Calabria and immigrated to the United States at the age of 12.
He also owned the New York Cosmos, played soccer at Columbia University in the Ivy League, and continued his philanthropic work. The university’s football stadium is named after him.
With Fiorentina, Commisso celebrated reaching the conference league finals in 2023 and 2024.
However, the team has struggled this season and is currently in the relegation zone of Serie A.
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