#INSERT type:image caption:Bologna president Joe Tacopina says the best is yet to come after leading the club back into Serie A. END#
Bologna president Joe Tacopina says the best is yet to come after delivering on his promise of leading the Italian club back into Serie A.
A 1-1 draw with Pescara on Tuesday night was enough to secure the Rossoblu an immediate return to the top flight after just one season in Serie B, and after leading the fans' celebrations on the pitch at the Stadio Dall' Ara, Tacopina said that there will be even more to celebrate in future.
"This is only the first step; the start of a new era," he told Il Corriere di Bologna. "When I came back here, to my city, I promised we would get back into Serie A. I kept my promise, but the fact we are here celebrating today is down to all of those people who have been close to us and believed in us.
"I want to thank the fans, the team, my partner [Joey] Saputo, all of the management, but more than anybody else I want to say thank you to everybody who believed in me, in us and in the American dream.
"We're back in Serie A today -- back home; where we belong. I'm a happy man. The future is going to be even better."
Canadian businessman Saputo, whose financial backing helped Tacopina in his successful takeover of the flailing Serie B side back in October, also flew in to witness Bologna's return to the big time.
"We took a long road to get into Serie A, but we've made it," he said on the club's website. "We always believed we would, even after the defeats to Carpi and Frosinone. I knew this squad was strong enough to reach this objective.
"My compliments go to the whole team. We've got players who wanted this so much. I'm a very passionate person -- I've got a club in Canada too -- and when I came here I could see there was a big opportunity to take this club back to past glories.
"I'm delighted and, from tomorrow, we'll get to work building a side that will be competitive in Serie A. There are plenty of projects that we've talked about, like renovating the stadium. We need to take things slowly, but we're going to be here a while and we need to build, without doing things in a hurry."
Coach Delio Rossi, who was appointed to replace Diego Lopez just a month ago, will lead that rebuilding process having seen his contract automatically extended by a season by securing promotion.
"I still haven't realised what has happened," he said on bolognafc.it. "It will sink in tomorrow. We knew we were going to have to suffer, but the lads were fantastic against a side who were even in better shape than us.
"Many of my players were in a difficult physical condition and they aren't going to play for a while after this game. They gave everything. They started out as favourites and already ending up in the playoffs was being seen as a failure. So it wasn't easy in this atmosphere so I applaud them."