FIUMICINO – Gravina’s reform is a reality. Without the votes of Serie A. The amendment to the statute which will change the electoral and political weights of Italian football passes the vote, but there were not many doubts about this. The reform was supported by 83 percent of the votes.
Casini‘s defeat
However, it is really interesting to see how Serie A behaved. Split in half. More or less. Because it’s true that no one voted in favor. But only 8 voted against, with a block of 12 abstentions. Those 8, on paper, are the votes of Claudio Lotito and Lorenzo Casini. It means that to date the president of the Football League does not have a majority. Certainly on the “no” to the Gravina reform. But at this point it cannot be ruled out that it is also the value of President Casini’s consensus. The Serie A requests, however, have all lapsed (because they have already been superseded by the approval of the Gravina reform) or inadmissible.
Gravina’s speech
A long attack on Serie A. Almost a declaration of war. The Football Federation assembly for the reform of the statute and electoral weights opened with a speech by the FIGC president, Gabriele Gravina. Which opens the showdown with the Football League. “An inverted pyramid in which the few end up counting more than the many would be the jungle of the strongest”.
Attack on Serie A
For Gravina, “Football does not belong to any federal president or any League president. Football is a responsibility that cannot be reduced to a mere power struggle.” A clear reference to the ongoing clash with Serie A president Casini. And in fact the No. 1 of the FIGC placed the emphasis on a “Repeated and unacceptable attempt at abuse by the stronger over the weaker. I will always be on the side of those who reject arrogance on principle with conviction.” And he added: “I immediately intended to accept the requests of the most important component. But each time more was asked in an attempt to get more or mortify someone else. The priority is to maintain a balance between participation and economic value.”
FIGC against politics
Then, a showdown, without ever naming them, with Minister Abodi and MP Mulè and that sports decree which was the subject of a clash between spring and summer: “The autonomy of the sports system is one of the fundamental principles that regulate the world of sport . It guarantees sports institutions from interference and conditioning by systems such as the state one.” Adding: “Fifa and UEFA had to remind Italy to respect this principle. The world of football would have appreciated it more if this tenacity had been aimed at the true needs of Italian football: tax credit, percentage on bets to be invested in nurseries, sponsorships from betting and bureaucratic simplification to create infrastructures. These are the needs that politics must help to resolve.” Gravina explained the reform in detail, going into the issues of conflict with the Football League: “already today professionalism has much greater representation than in other European countries”. It is explained how Serie A is granted a strong right of agreement with the reform. And that “In case of no agreement, what was already approved for the previous season remains in force”. Adding, in response to the intervention with which the Forzista deputy Mulè evoked public interventions against the FIGC, that “this aspect was not requested by any state law”. As if to say: it is not an argument to threaten us.
Serie A’s response
The response from Serie A, on the issues of reform, i.e. electoral weights and right of agreement, is immediate. President Casini defended the amendments with which Serie A asked for an additional federal councilor and fuller autonomy: “The Lega Serie A believes that this Assembly does not represent the burdens required by law and for this reason it has challenged the regulation. Nonetheless, he presented a proposal that 80% reproduces that of the federal president but there are three important changes compared to the federal text. The first refers to the power of agreement: in the federal proposal it is different from how the president presented it. The text talks about issues that concern “exclusively” Serie A. The risk is that it is sufficient for the FC to approve a rule that concerns all of professional football for the right to reach an agreement to cease. All we need to do is remove the word “exclusively”. The second concerns weights and bodies of the Federation. I don’t want to reiterate how much. But the documents presented several times always spoke of a 20% Serie A with 5 directors. Today we are talking about 18% and 4 councilors: you will understand why Serie A did not consider it appropriate. Before a state law said to take into account the economic contribution. I think the reaction is understandable. Third point: the strong agreement envisages recognizing a status for Serie A. To reach the strong agreement it was imagined that in the event of a lack of agreement it would be possible to go to the CONI Council. Recognizing equal dignity. The formulation arrived at constitutes a crossed veto. Serie A proposes to overcome the crossed veto, a Serie A position to be applied in the event of a lack of agreement. It aims to recognize the autonomy that Serie A was asking for. Do you want to go a step further? It is enough to look at the proposals from Serie A and accept them. At that point Italian football will improve.”
The other voices
The referees dispute the loss of their 2%, calling it the “Chronicle of a death foretold”. Abete criticized Serie A: “The problem of Serie A cannot be blamed on a system like that of the federation. There is no longer respect for the other components. Casini didn’t even have the courage to point out that in their proposal the NLD loses 10 points and 2 councillors. Without ever having posed this type of request either to the federal council or to the commissions. We have 36,004 employment contracts, Serie A has a thousand. Sure, their parents are millionaires, but the work is the same for everyone. We ask for respect.” Similar speech from the president of the Lega Pro Matteo Marani: “Personalism has led Italian football to sink to a painful level. A law has canceled the sporting restriction and is closing Italian nurseries. No one thinks of saving themselves at the expense of the other. We have always recognized Serie A as having full autonomy. This is why we gave up one of our advisors to give him to Serie A. We welcomed the second teams. They say that Serie A is the engine, we have 2% of that engine: it’s really not much. The work that Serie C does with young people must be recognized: players, referees and managers.
