It’s time to renew the FCI Statute. Beyond the electoral promises not kept by the President Cordiano Dagnonithe time has really come to change the FCI Statute, but not only to update it and keep it up to date with the times, but also to include among the federal objectives that of “make life difficult, if not impossible, for affiliated associations”.
IMPROVISATION – This seems to have truly become the occupation of federal offices. In a season in which the Italian ASDs have already had to deal with a Sports Reform patched up by the legislator and imposed from above without the necessary federal intermediation, today comes yet another bureaucratic innovation to be implemented.
The federal Newsletter, which arrived in the ASD inbox yesterday, Tuesday 25 June, at 10.57 pm, in fact, added further fuel to the fire of regulatory confusion.
In the FCI communication, without there having been any notice in recent months, it is “summarized” that by July 1, 2024 (i.e., within 5 days of the federal email!) it is necessary to appoint a “Responsible for abuse, violence and discrimination” complete with resolution of the board of directors and appointment to be uploaded to the federal IT system.
Federal IT system which, moreover, was updated only a few minutes ago (with an entry in the documents section).
SAFE…WHAT?! – The most attentive have already started to call consultants and have taken action, for the others, most of the company managers, the matter is absolute darkness but all this risks becoming a big problem.
To understand what it is, we need to take a step back. The July 25, 2023 (pay attention to the dates, we are talking about 11 months ago) CONI approved a resolution con which it adapted to state regulations for the introduction in sports clubs of a model regulation for the prevention and fight against abuse, violence and discrimination against members.
This resolution required that the ASD appoint a person responsible for combating abuse, violence and discrimination by 1 July 2024 (in a few days).
The FCI, like the other sports federations, had been promptly informed of this (so much so that traces of it can be found in a sentence of the FCI Federal Court of 1 March 2024) but the federal managers preferred to shrug their shoulders. The same would have happened a few months ago, when the Lombardy Regional Committee had asked the central offices for explanations regarding the application of this new regulation and the adoption of this new figure. Ditto for when promoted independently by Veneto Regional Committee which already in an email dated 17 June last warned its companies of the imminent deadline (which however was not possible to fully comply with since the possibility of transmitting the documentation was not yet active on the federal IT system).
Yesterday, i.e. exactly 11 months after the adoption of the Coni Resolution and just 5 days before the deadline of 1 July, the FCI informs the grassroots clubs that there is a need to proceed with the appointment of this manager by providing a specimen of the appointment document and also of the minutes of the board of directors for the adoption of this new figure.
A need which, even today, does not even find space on the homepage of the federal website but is relegated to a link within the “Sport Reform” section with which, moreover, it has nothing to do.
HYPOCRITICAL BUREAUCRACY – The culpable delay with which the federal leaders are informing the affiliated companies and the way in which this communication took place reduces all this to yet another bureaucratic hassle that must be complied with hastily without even having time to realize what all this entails and the meaning that a figure of this kind should and could have.
“Today, fill out these two forms, upload them and you’re good to go” this, in short, is the FCI’s response. A behavior that, once again, raises strong doubts about the ways in which the President Cordiano Dagnoni and the Secretary General Marcello Gavino Tolu they are administering and guiding the FCI.
The “Safeguarding” regulation as required by Italian law and adopted by CONI, it is not rose water tea. It involves the appointment of a third party, who has tasks and duties and who could intervene in a wide range of situations to guarantee the correct relationship between clubs and members.
An innovation of this kind would have deserved months of in-depth study, meetings or video calls with the managers of the clubs and could have been inserted directly with the modification of the ASD statutes on the occasion of the adaptation to the Sports Reform in order to also limit the “bureaucratic” commitment of ASD managers.
But no, once again Cordiano Dagnoni and Marcello Gavino Tolu have interpreted all this with an “Italian” approach perhaps hoping for yet another last-minute postponement. And only yesterday, with a simple email, not even signed, they thought to inform the sports managers who these days are in the midst of competitive activity between Italian Championships, races to face and organize and the cycling market for next season.
“All you need to do is fill out two papers. No checks are needed, no meetings are needed and even the board of directors can be fictitious”: so when faced with indications like these, always be wary. Even more so if they come from federal managers accustomed to seeing minutes in blank or with the content modified even after the vote of the Federal Council itself.
Yet there is another way of administering sport and cycling in particular: transparent and open, informed and aware. We are convinced of this and perhaps for this reason we still get a little angry at those who expose the FCI to such fools and, at the same time, force members to live with yet another delay and a further last minute obligation.
