By Mark Baber
January 30 – The Italian FA (FIGC) were unable to elect a new president on Monday, despite four rounds of voting, underlining the crisis in Italian football which has seen racism tolerated at the highest levels, seen the national team (currently coach-less) eliminated in qualifying for the World Cup and now sees vacancies in the top positions at the FIGC and Serie A.
At a general meeting in Fiumicino, none of the three candidates, the president of the Amateur League (LND) Cosimo Sibilia, the president of the third-tier Lega Pro division Gabriele Gravina and the head of the professional players’ union (AIC) Damiano Tommasi, could win the necessary votes.
Tommasi was knocked out of the running after the third round, but the fourth and final ballot of delegates representing Serie A, Serie B, Lega Pro, LND, the players’ association, the coaches’ association and the referees, saw Gravina receive 39.06% whilst Sibilia received 1.85% with 59.09% blank ballots.
With a stalemate having been widely predicted, Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malago had, in vain, asked for the vote to be postponed for three months. The likely outcome now is that the Olympic Committee will take control of the FIGC.
The day began with a standing ovation for Carlo Tavecchio, who survived a six-month UEFA ban for racism but who resigned as president after Italy’s World Cup failure. The following seven hours saw a series of chaotic attempts at deal-making between the candidates which failed to produce an agreement, with Tommasi refusing any deal and Gravina opting out a deal which would have made him president.
The latest chaos in the FIGC has left football in Italy rudderless as it attempts to come to terms with multiple crises and may compound the problems over selling TV rights for Serie A, getting a new national coach in place and overhauling the game’s administration to halt what looks like a gradual decline in the nation’s position amongst the great football nations of Europe.
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