The outgoing federal president does not want to play the role of simple manager until the elections on June 22, but to keep the spotlight on his reform agenda which has been written several times and has often remained in the chapter of good intentions
The two Conte governments, the Draghi executive and the Meloni legislature: Gabriele Gravina’s life in the FIGC chair is enclosed in a broad, deep, dramatic temporal space. Seven and a half seasons are an enviable window because you need to deploy a strong political ability to stay on your feet and do it when everything around you is going sideways: Gravina did it until the final push in the cold of Zenica. He will now look to the palaces of Roman politics to exit the scene with a wing stroke that will give him back a role that is not simply that of a manager before the vote on 22 June: the pressure of an embittered Gravina on the government will have the aim of keeping the spotlight on the request for tax relief on those who invest in young people, in infrastructures, in the women’s movement, on a rule that replaces the farewell to the sporting constraint to prevent the escape of our talents abroad, one percent of copyright for bets to be used for nurseries, the restoration of the Growth Decree with the highest value. An agenda written several times and often left to the chapter of good intentions, such as the announced reform of the championships.
unsuccessful attempts
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The first white smoke falls on 22 October 2018: the horizon narrows because, suddenly, the world becomes acquainted with Covid. “I will not be the gravedigger of Italian football… We have already lost 500 million”, he says, when elsewhere the championships close, but in our country not unless in time: he is the number one of the FIGC to announce that on 13 June 2020 we will start again with Juventus-Milan semi-final of the Italian Cup and that on the 22nd the championship it will start again one hundred and two days after Sassuolo-Brescia. Gravina has 97.2 percent as a response from the polls and challenges those who would like to pull down the shutter on football by crystallizing the status quo: the trend of the epidemic takes its course, inside the empty stadiums we return to play. The first time at the top of the Football Federation was born after the commissionership and from what for many is a betrayed “relay”: to get out of the electoral impasse, Gravina and the current president of the Sibilia Amateur League agreed to pass the baton to each other in via Allegri. Result? The now former number one of the FIGC is running again and on 22 February 2021 he gets the second white smoke: thus opens the legislature of the joy of Wembley and the darkness of Palermo when North Macedonia closes the doors of the playoff final with Qatar at stake. Here the political nature prevails over the sporting one: Gravina does not resign and asks coach Mancini to do as strongly as the consensus in the federal council.
reforms
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The topic of reforms is back on the table and the reduction of professional teams, as many as 100, in deference to the sustainability of the system is back in the news: Serie A from 20 to 18, or rather no, better to dedicate ourselves to slimming down the other two leagues, but these are only good intentions and they remain so. The Extraordinary Assembly will be scheduled for 11 March 2024 with the agenda being precisely those reforms deemed necessary to breathe new life into our balloon: no assembly will take place on 11 March, the success of which Gravina had linked his own credibility on the delicate issue. A year later, a little less, here is the third even more cumbersome white smoke, perhaps the most cumbersome: the consensus rises to 97.8 percent. Now only the sworn “enemy” Claudio Lotito and, in part, Aurelio De Laurentiis remain in opposition. There have been three technical commissioners. First: Roberto Mancini. Second: Luciano Spalletti. Third: Rino Gattuso.
the break with the fist
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The relationship with Mancini was born by chance because the choice was made by the extraordinary commissioner Fabbricini at the suggestion of deputy Costacurta and the relationship broke down in a traumatic way, on August 15th 2023 when the coach made him communicate that he will go to Arabia after having denied such a hypothesis at dinner the week before. The bond with Spalletti resisted the failure of the 2024 European Championships, the worst in our history as we experienced them. The one with Gattuso is yesterday’s story. Gravina leaves the scene as UEFA vice-president and from UEFA he obtained the organization of Euro 2032 in half with Turkey: they, the Turks, have already identified the five stadiums hosting the matches, we will have until next October to skim the list of candidate cities. Will we make it? We will have to do it so as not to blush: in Gavina’s three mandates, the opportunity to host a great, very great event is the heaviest result. Woe to deflate it, woe to miss the deadlines, we need the 100 million stadium fund. The cold of Zenica brings down the curtain on a 7 and a half year long season.
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