The FIR Italian Rugby Federation would have approved the balance final report 2023 highlighting a significant liability, Rugby measure he had it anticipated last March with this article underlining the data despite the large income due to the sale to the fund CVC of the Six Nations (one seventh) and URC (28%) shares. The deficit for the 2024 federal management would be 9 million eurosa figure that we await to be confirmed or denied by the federal press release that will be published in a few days. The delicate subject is discussed in detail Rovigo Gazette of which we report a part of the article that appeared on Monday.
“Italian Rugby Federation in deep red” is the title of Ivan Malfatto’s article from the pages of the Gazzettino
On Friday, the Federal Council approved a deficit of approximately nine million euros in the financial statements of the 2023. The conditional is a must, because the news is not yet official. It should be announced in detail in a press release in the next few days. If it is confirmed, it cannot but cause concern among Italian clubs, and fans, even if the FIR will certainly provide the accounting explanations and reassurances of the case. The heavy deficit would not be a surprise. In the federal press release issued on March 7, 2023 on the budget estimate for that year
it was in fact written: «The budget closes, in accordance with the prudential criterion used in its drafting, with a deficit of 8,777,292.62 euroswhich could be significantly reduced through extraordinary revenues, higher contributions and optimizations, similarly to what happened in 2022, whose financial statement to be presented soon will show a positive margin compared to a forecast deficit of 7.5 million euros, while ensuring the maintenance of a significant equity share». Evidently the extraordinary revenues and the expected contributions have not arrived and the deficit has not been reduced. Indeed, it would have even increased by a few thousand euros. The approximately nine million of liabilities in the 2023 financial statement would be added to the almost eight million deficit approved in the 2024 Budgetas a Fir press release dated March 27, 2024 always states: «The negative result of the 2024 budget year, equal to €7,832,330.55, does not appear to affect in any way the business and institutional continuity, allowing on the contrary both to continue with the investments appropriate to the development of high-performance sports activity – and the consequent, fundamental revenues deriving from it – and to progressively reduce the state of over-capitalization of Fir, as recommended by the institutional control bodies, avoiding a structural decrease in the contributions of the Granting Body in future financial years».
2024 also passive, continues the Gazzettino
If the budget deficit is confirmed in the 2024 financial statement, Italian rugby’s red numbers will reach 17 million euros in the space of two seasons. A significant figure, on which it is legitimate to ask some questions, given that the FIR, like all the Six Nations entities, will benefit until 2026 from the millions of euros collected from the CVC financial fund for the purchase of the tournament fees and the URC. Other federations also have these problems. France has approved a deficit of 40 million euros in two seasons. Wales has just announced a five-year plan to pay off a debt of 20 million pounds. Ireland and Scotland in 2022 approved budgets with 7 and 10 million euros in deficit respectively. Shared pain, however, should not be half joy.
