Tommaso Ghirardi is an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 businessman, currently serving as president of Italian association football club Parma F.C.

Parma F.C.

Parma Football Club , commonly referred to as just Parma, is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia–Romagna that will compete in Serie A for the 2011–12 season, having finished in twelfth position last season. Founded as Verdi Foot Ball Club in July 1913, the club changed its...

 and sitting on the Serie A

Serie A

Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...

 committee.

His entry into football came with the purchase of A.C. Carpenedolo

A.C. Carpenedolo

Associazione Calcio Carpenedolo is an Italian association football club, based in Carpenedolo, Lombardy.Carpenedolo currently plays in Serie D.The team's colors are red and black.-From Lega Pro Seconda Divisione to Serie D:...

, a small club based near Brescia, when the club was in Serie D

Serie D

Serie D is the top level of the Italian non-professional football association called Lega Nazionale Dilettanti. The association represents over a million football players and thousands of football teams across Italy. Serie D ranks just below Lega Pro Seconda Divisione , and is thus considered the...

. The club turned professional and gained promotion to Serie C2

Serie C2

Lega Pro Seconda Divisione is the name of the fourth highest football league in Italy, the lowest with a professional status. Usually it consists of 54 teams, but in the season 2010–11 the teams are only 49 divided geographically into three divisions of 17, 16 and 16 teams each...

 in 2004 and marginally missed on promotion to Serie C1

Serie C1

Lega Pro Prima Divisione is the name of the third highest football league in Italy. It consists of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions of 18 teams each. Until 2008 it was known as Serie C1....

 two years later after play-off defeat.

On 3 January 2007, Ghirardi bought financially troubled Parma F.C. in an auction for the sale of the club. He sacked Stefano Pioli

Stefano Pioli

Stefano Pioli is an Italian former footballer and current manager of Serie A team Bologna.-Player:Pioli, a native of Parma, started his own playing career for his home city team, AC Parma. Successively, he was signed by Juventus, with whom he had his Serie A debut in 1984...

 after just two matches and replaced him with Claudio Ranieri

Claudio Ranieri

Claudio Ranieri, is an Italian football manager, currently in charge as head coach of Internazionale.He has also managed many other well-known clubs in Europe, including Cagliari, Napoli, Fiorentina, Valencia, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Parma, Juventus and Roma.-Early life:Ranieri attended St...

, but the club continued to struggle. Relegation seemed inevitable, but final day victory secured Parma's place in Italy's top division for the following season. He responded by investing around €11M on new players. Despite this, Parma were relegated to Serie B

Serie B

Serie B, currently named Serie bwin due to sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It is contested by 22 teams and organized by the Lega Serie B since July 2010, after the split of Lega Calcio that previously took care of both the...

 after nineteen consecutive seasons in the top flight.

Life in Serie B started worryingly under Luigi Cagni

Luigi Cagni

Luigi "Gigi" Cagni is an Italian football former player and current manager of Vicenza in Serie B.- Player :Cagni, a defender, made his Serie A debut for Brescia in 1970, in a league match lost 4-0 to Cagliari...

, who was replaced by Francesco Guidolin

Francesco Guidolin

Francesco Guidolin is an Italian football manager and former player, currently serving as head coach of Serie A outfit Udinese.-Playing career:...

 and Parma would go on to secure promotion with two games of the season to go. The return to Serie A was the cue for the appointment of Pietro Leonardi

Pietro Leonardi

Pietro Leonardi is an Italian businessman, currently serving as sporting and managing director of Italian association football club Parma F.C..-Career:...

 as general manager and Andrea Berta (ex-colleague at Carpendolo) as sporting director. A creditable eighth-place finish and the return of Hernan Crespo

Hernán Crespo

Hernán Jorge Crespo is an Argentine footballer who plays for Parma in the Italian Serie A. Crespo has scored over 300 goals in a career spanning 18 years. His honors include an Olympic Games silver medal, a Copa Libertadores, an English Premier League title and three Scudettos. He was topscorer in...

saw Ghirardi held in high regard by the fans.