diMonica Colombo
The presidents are in turmoil and believe that the principle of the autonomy of sport is about to be questioned
The presidents of the football clubs are in turmoil. But not only them. The whole of professional sport is in turmoil. A sacred and inviolable principle, namely the autonomy of sport, is about to be questioned. “We’re not talking about regimes, but there’s no doubt that it’s a straight-faced entry of politics into sport, into football in particular…”, is one of the strictly anonymous comments that emerged after the news regarding the draft of the legislative decree on the table of the Minister of Sport Andrea Abodi: the executive would remove the federations from the tasks of controlling club accounts to channel the verification of the correctness of the financial statements to a government agency.
Agency for economic and financial supervision of professional sports clubs. This is the precise name to define the body that would weaken Covisoc, i.e. the supervisory commission which reports to the FIGC and which, in addition to monitoring the companies’ budgets, reports to the federation who has the requirements to register for the championship and who he doesn’t have them. The text was sent by Minister Abodi to CONI and the FIGC, forcing the federal president Gravina to urgently call a meeting between the presidents of the components (i.e. the leaders of the Leagues A, B, Lega Pro, coaches , players and referees): the meeting will serve to gauge moods, understand positions and decide on a common strategy. The most malicious leaders believe that Gravina chose a different path from the federal council to avoid the involvement of Claudio Lotito in the meeting, according to many the great inspirer of this government maneuver. This accusation is not even too subtle: by dint of invoking autonomy from the federation for the League of A, politics took inspiration from this and decided to deprive the federation of the tasks of economic-financial control. In the past, the president of Lazio underlined the lack of independence of Covisoc from the federation, underlining the interference of the FIGC.
While waiting to read the text carefully, the majority of Serie A presidents consider the autonomy of sport to be a priority and consider the attitude of politics invasive as the agency – according to the draft amendment – has binding power over registration to the championships. Moreover, there are those who point out that the clubs participating in the cups are already under the aegis of UEFA, which grants licenses after checks and the requirements to pass the checks are very strict.
Furthermore, the maintenance of the government agency composed of a president and two members, appointed by Prime Minister Meloni and Minister Abodi, as well as around thirty controller employees, and quantified at 2.5 million euros per year, would be borne by the companies controlled (and who didn’t ask to be). The League of A will meet in an assembly in Rome on May 15th, unless there is a need to convene an ad hoc meeting shortly: more than one president is planning to ask Abodi to retrace his steps.
If football clubs are on a war footing (which earn 1 billion a year from TV rights), let alone basketball clubs which have infinitely lower revenues (3.3 million per season…). Basketball complains of being systematically excluded from government measures for the benefit of sport, but in this case assimilated to football: tomorrow summit between federal president Gianni Petrucci and Serie A number 1 Umberto Gandini.
May 5, 2024 (modified May 5, 2024 | 07:18)
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