ROMA – They say that politics is the art of compromise and signals. The one launched by Minister Abodi is the translation of a personal style – the ability to dialogue to avoid disagreements – even if the timing leads one to think that the government does not intend to retreat from the agency that will control the accounts of professional clubs by evaluating their stability economic-financial. «Something can be modified, but not the supporting structure» the head of the department said on Sunday. And so, speaking of signals, when a project “It’s been on the agenda for about a year” e the table with the interlocutors involved are summoned less than 96 hours before the council of ministers that on Monday (or in any case soon) it should be transformed into a decree, means that there is very little to discuss. In any case, tomorrow is the day of the institutional summit between politics and sport.
After the requests formulated by the contentious football family and also by basketball, the Minister for Sport convened the federations, leagues and members at 3.30 pm at his offices a stone’s throw from the Quirinale. The president of CONI, Malagò, will also be therewhich he had reported in recent days «l’autonomia lesa» with the same tone of concern that he had in the hardest days of the dispute with Sport and Health. The common thread? The shadow of Giancarlo Giorgetti, former undersecretary, now Minister of Economy. The prevailing mood is always the same: some talk about trust, others are perplexed. «Now let’s work together for a solution»the invitation of the FIP president, Petrucci.
UEFA and FIFA on alert
The data is taken, we were saying. Although UEFA and FIFA remain vigilant and they could lash out against the Italian government as early as tomorrow. The cancellation of football’s Covisoc (the supervisory commission) to make room for a public body of political appointment with decision-making autonomy, the ability to trigger investigative activities and order inspections at the clubs, but above all to evaluate documents for the purpose of registrations, is considered a pitch invasion from both the European and World Football Associations. Professional sportBy uniting, we will be able to achieve the maximum tomorrow the promise of some concession compared to the first draft. Even if the location and nature of the meeting do not require it, the opportunity still appears tempting to bring equally urgent issues out of the bag. And if the reintroduction of the growth decree to encourage the arrival of foreigners (FIGC and Serie A have different positions) and the levy on betting to recognize copyright (everyone here agrees) became exchangeable goods expendable on the altar of surveillance which was no longer negotiable? Tomorrow we will obviously talk about money. In the draft it is written that the controlled clubs will finance the agency – 2.5 million budget per year – but since it is not a third party, as happens when an authority regulates a private sector, the companies ask that the government itself bears the bills.
The question of appeals
The issue of appeals is equally crucial. The document talks about «binding opinion» for the purposes of issuance of the license, but it is not explained what will happen when the government agency excludes a club. When this happens with Covisoc, companies can present a claim and, at that point, the supervisory commission issues a report (this is non-binding) in which it motivates the decision, while leaving political responsibility to the federal council. Removing that “binding” from the text could be transformed into an own goal for football, because at that point the councilors would have civil and criminal responsibility for a choice made by a government body. Yet the excluded must have a guarantee: Who would you turn to if it were the Executive that closed the doors?
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