“As IOC president and IOC member, I deal with sports policy and not politics. In Italy, I repeat, I represent the CIO. And the Executive Board recommended all federations not to invite Russian and Belarusian athletes to tournaments and sporting events.
Wimbledon, which is a private club, has followed this indication “. With these words, the president of CONI Giovanni Malagò expressed his point of view on the participation of Russian and Belarusian tennis players in the International BNL of Italy.
Malagò would have preferred to have seen the exclusion of Russian players from the Masters 1000 in Rome and has never hidden his approval of the decision taken by the organizers of the Wimbledon tournament.
Binaghi attacks the president of CONI Malagò
In the traditional press conference at the end of the tournament, the president of the FIT Angelo Binaghi he said he was proud of the results achieved this year and responded harshly to all the statements made by Malagò in recent weeks.
“” The increase in presale from 11% of forecasts to 22% real, after long meditations we attributed it to the Malagò effect, which first tried not to make Rome the number 1 in the world Novak Djokovicthen the Russians.
It is not true that the IOC had given different indications than those of the ATP and WTA. While he was saying these things, the UCI made those athletes run, the FIA as well, the volleyball club players as well. The FIT would have risked damaging a heritage of our sport such as the Internationals, which risked consequences ranging from the possible strike of the players to the definitive revocation of the license.
Goodbye IBI. Ultimately, the president of Coni asked to intervene on the autonomy of sport, he who in the past had opposed it. Thank god President Draghi and the government have understood everything: 40 million in turnover and an estimated turnover of around 140, half a million members not just numbers, because increasing turnover increases employment and interest in the area , it is a benefit for the sporting community “.
