The war continues to be in full swing between the different players in Italian football, at a time when Calcio continues to receive bad news between a major economic crisis, a large number of dilapidated stadiums, low use of young players, a national team in reconstruction. Italy is having a hard time developing its football, which was once one of the most glorious in Europe, and for several months, the harmful environment around Italian football has continued to worsen with the massive arrival of the government of Giorgia Meloni in the debates. The candidacy for Euro 2032 in collaboration with Turkey is still in great danger due to the numerous problems mentioned in the preamble to this article. And Italian politics is not about to back away from questions surrounding the future of football.
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For several months now, the Minister of Sports, Andrea Abodi, and the president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), Gabriele Gravina, have been attacking each other between the presses. The politician from Fratelli d’Italia (far-right party) had already attacked the head of Italian football, then accused of money laundering by the Rome court: “The Gravina case? This worries me a lot. Faced with this figure, we need prudence and guarantees. It is a moment in which the news places us before a series of critical factors, then the news of the coming months will explain to us how much reality there is in what is being reported today. We must make this difficult moment not only a moment of reflection but of decision”. And the time for big decisions has arrived for Abodi and these next few weeks risk being explosive with a reform of 18 clubs for the championship still in effect and a constant standoff around Italian arbitration.
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A parliamentary body
The government of Giorgia Meloni wants to abolish Covisoc, the FIGC supervisory commission of professional football clubs which today monitors the clubs’ finances, with the aim of replacing it with a public body which will decide who can register for the championship. It will take the form of a political instrument composed of 30 new seats for a total cost of 2.5 million euros paid by Italian clubs. The new agency will be composed of a president and two members, appointed by Meloni and Abodi, for a non-renewable four-year term, a general secretary and a total staff of thirty employees. This bill proposed by Abodi was sent to the offices of the football federation and the Italian Olympic Committee (Cuneo) in recent days, creating a lot of discontent even in the face of the total absence of financial aid from the government in recent years. In this regard, the President of the FIGC, Gabriele Gravina, has called an emergency federal meeting, scheduled for tomorrow Monday May 6 at 6 p.m.
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This organization will be named“Economic and financial supervisory agency for professional sports clubs”, it will have jurisdiction not only over football, but also over basketball: a public body based in Rome and placed under the supervision of the Palazzo Chigi (equivalent to the Palais de Matignon) and the Ministry of Sports. It will have regulatory autonomy, will control team budgets, indicate corrective measures to be taken, can order the submission of documents and carry out checks at club headquarters. And he will have the power to summon the leaders of the FIGC and sports leagues and thus express total authoritarian power, also constraining registrations for championships. The Italian League still wants the creation of a completely independent authority or in the worst case, a hybrid system like the one already existing in Italy for doping. And if this authority had to exist under the aegis of the government, the leaders do not understand why the 2.5 million euros per year planned to support this new control agency, a non-economic public body, should be paid by clubs and not by the State.
A national scandal
The text could soon be included in a government provision, but it is already sparking discussion for at least two reasons. The first in substance, because it empties the CONI and the sports federations of the power of management control and threatens the principle of independence and neutrality of sport in relation to politics: an agency appointed by the government which decides who can playing in Serie A and who cannot do so is causing a lot of ink to flow today. The second is formal, because this bill would circumvent the requirements of necessity and urgency required to issue a decree-law. The government plans to correct the text to avoid accusations of political interference by FIFA and UEFA: “We are improving the text and I am sure that Parliament will make further valuable contributions. With this Agency, we in no way want to undermine the autonomy of sport, but the current model not only does not guarantee fair competition, but has a significant economic impact on the entire sports system which deserves another approach. »promised Abodi who said he was ready to listen to the arguments.
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In the current system, economic and financial control obviously falls to the federations themselves: CONI establishes general methods and principles, the statutes of each federation determine the control system and associated measures. In football, the control function is currently delegated to Covisoc, made up of a president and four advisors, appointed by qualified majority by the federal council: the leaders are chosen by the federation, but it is an autonomous body which carries out periodic checks throughout the season. The final decision regarding admission to the championships then rests with the federal council. This major project should be officially presented to the Italian Parliament next week and MPs will have to decide straight away. Nothing is going well in Italian football and the battle is far from over. Calcio considers this initiative as an invasion of the field by a government.
Pub. on 05/05/2024 20:15 MAJ on 05/05/2024 20:36
2024-05-05 18:15:00
#Italian #government #dynamite #Calcio
