He sold Venezia in 2002 in order to buy then-Serie B club Palermo from Roma chairman Franco Sensi[2] with the goal to bring the Sicilian team back to Serie A, a goal that was achieved with promotion in the 2003–04 season.

In April 2012, Zamparini was suspended one year for involvement in third-party ownership; however, this was shortened to five months after appeal.

[3] On 27 February 2017, Zamparini stepped down as chairman of Palermo[4] after 15 years in charge with over 40 managerial changes (the last one being the appointment of Diego López as head coach in place of resigning Eugenio Corini a month previous), announcing he had formally sold his controlling stake to an unspecified Anglo-American fund.

[5] On 4 July 2017, Paul Baccaglini resigned as Palermo chairman, falling back into the hands of Zamparini, after the necessary funds were not in place.

[9] On 1 December 2018, Zamparini confirmed the sale of the club to an unnamed London company for the "symbolic" price of €10 (£8.75).