“Appreciating the climate of constructive dialogue in which the meeting took place, we had the opportunity to reiterate our sharing in Minister Abodi’s objective of stability and economic-financial sustainability of professional football, but the problem is not the controls and the tool identified does not solve the problem; rather we must work together to identify even more rigid principles for National Licenses”. This is the comment of the FIGC president Gabriele Gravina upon leaving the summit convened by the Minister of Sport Andrea Abodiwith the Football Federation issuing an official note immediately after the summit to summarize what happened.
“During the meeting – we read in the statement -, President Gravina expressed his opinion opposition from the world of football regarding the establishment of the so-called ‘Agency for the economic and financial supervision of professional sports clubs’ highlighting, point by point, the critical issues found in the analysis of the document sent on 3 May, starting from respect for the principle of sporting autonomy recognized both nationally and internationally. Gravina also informed Minister Abodi of the discussions he had with UEFA and FIFA, making him aware of the letter already received yesterday with a request for urgent explanations to be sent by Monday 13 May, in which they highlight great concern.
The position of the FIGC is clear: this new reality is in clear contrast with the absolute prohibition of political interference in the regulations and activities of the FIGC, enshrined in the articles. 14 and 15 of the FIFA Statute, which all Federations must compulsorily comply with, under penalty of possible sanctions. To this, taking into account that the activity relating to the checks of professional clubs and admissions to championships is subject to the careful supervision of CONI, it would also be added the obvious contrast with rule 24.6 of the Olympic Charterwhich requires CONI to preserve its autonomy and resist any type of political pressure.
Gravina then raised doubts about the conformity of the fundamental principle of the autonomy of the sports system, historically sanctioned by the state system and reiterated by two rulings of the Constitutional Court (most recently with sentence 160/2019) and of the Court of Cassation. Furthermore, it does not appear to be consistent with resolutions at European level which, to date, have always recognized the autonomy and specificity of the sports system (provided that the rules and measures adopted by it are respectful of the principle of proportionality and reasonableness), but they have never recognized the possibility of interventions by government authorities in activities delegated to the sports authorities. In this regard, the European Parliament has always supported UEFA in adopting homogeneous control tools at European level. Last but not least, implementation and compatibility problems with the federal regulatory system were also listed from a temporal perspective and with regard to the sanctioning system.
Having said all this, the FIGC president has now confirmed to Minister Abodi his willingness to act with even greater severity on the regulation of economic-financial sustainability, inviting the Ministry itself to indicate the new guidelines to CONI, responsible by law for issuing the principles and supervising the work of the Federations”.
