As recently as the '90s, Parma had one of the best squads in European football. The Italian club could count the likes of Juan Veron, Lillian Thuram, Gianluigi Buffon and Faustino Asprilla in their team, just to name a few illustrious names.
Yet this weekend, they could not even put on a game against Udinese because they could not afford to pay the stewards for the match.
It is a situation that looks likely to see the club wound up by the courts.
"This is really a sad story," said Off The Ball's European football reviewer Ben Lyttleton on tonight's show.
"For fans of our generation, we can remember the forward line of [Gianfranco] Zola and Asprilla from the '90s, with Dino Baggio in midfield. What a great side that was. But it's a very distant memory."
As Ben explained, Parma finished in a high of sixth last season, qualifying for the Europa League.
"But there was a warning sign that appeared in the summer and that was UEFA kicked them out of the Europa League because they had not paid their tax bill. It wasn't very much. It was €300K but in the context of what you get for playing in the Europa League - which is €8-9M - it was a piddling amount. And yet no action was taken by the Italian FA at the time. Parma were allowed to get their licence to play in the league. But no player has been paid since last July and the coach [Roberto] Donadoni has not been paid."
Ownership of the club has changed hands - even for as little as €1 - during the season and as Ben said the debt saddled on the club by the former is up to €197M.
D-Day is likely to be March 19th when the club faces a court date, but Ben suggested that Parma may look to survive until the end of the season by going into administration.
"Otherwise we may see them fold this season, which would be a real tragedy," he said, revealing that there aren't even hot showers for youth team players to shower with.
But citing the example of Fiorentina who also hit the wall financially at the turn of the Millennium, Ben added that the bottom placed club can find its way back in Serie A again.
Also on the Football Show's European football review, Ben gave his take on Malaga's surprise victory over Barcelona.
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