Letter from the League against the Football Association, but 8 clubs have not read it

The most heard expression in the reconstruction of the events was this: “Shoot yourself in the foot”. Just when football and sport in general – with a thousand sacrosanct reasons – ask the government for help for the sector, the Serie A League stumbles upon a case that highlights even more the divisions that tear it apart, despite the attempts at unity that from time to time the more enlightened parts try to carry on.

The guideline

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The “casus belli”, this time, was given by the letter sent by the representatives of the clubs to the Undersecretary for Sport, Valentina Vezzali, and to the president of Coni, Giovanni Malagò. In the letter, in light of the new guiding principles formulated by the Football Federation, the Lega would have wanted a clarification, that is, whether the rules that affect it are correct from a jurisprudential point of view, and therefore whether it is mandatory (or not) to accept them. Another letter, this time addressed to the FIGC, today will ask for at least a couple of weeks to be able to implement the reform. All of this was what the January 27 meeting had unanimously decided.

However, the letter to Vezzali and Malagò – which had to be sent by January 31 (according to the federal dictates) – in addition to having arrived on the tables of the deputies without the signatures and without even the letterhead of the League, in reality has a tenor almost of break up. Let’s say immediately that the letter was forwarded to the consultative section of the Coni College of Guarantee, chaired by Virginia Zambrano, but some passages of the letter already seem to foresee the incorrectness of the rules. In fact, expressions such as “we believe that this claim does not comply with the law …”, “this autonomy cannot be limited except in the presence of reasons of public interest …”, “it is our firm belief that the FIGC can dictate guiding principles …, but cannot interfere in the choices … “.

In short, if you wanted to irritate the FIGC and put in difficulty the president of the League, Paolo Dal Pino (in these days in the US, as well as the CEO De Siervo), the move was successful, if you wanted to pursue the appearance of unity, much less.

The yellow

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In fact, yesterday, when the agencies typed the text, clarifications from various companies began to arrive, explaining how not only they had never received the final draft, but that the text – read in the meeting – should be lightened, so much so It is true that the word “illegitimacy of the rules” had in fact been quashed. It is said that under the direction of President Lotito, the letter was drafted by four lawyers, Campoccia (Udinese), Cappellini (Inter), Fanini (Verona) and Romei (Sampdoria), each of which – as happens in multiple-handed texts – they could agree on one passage and less on others. The feeling is that the drafters believed that everything was then “fired” by the clubs. The text, on the other hand, sent to the secretary Stincardini and also read by the CEO De Siervo, on the other hand, was immediately “circulated” – say sources close to the League – according to the mandate of the assembly. The same sources say that the assembly had not wanted to copy the FIGC, despite having been advised out of “institutional courtesy”. On many aspects the versions of the clubs diverge, but certainly on the form clubs like Bologna, Cagliari, Turin, Empoli, Genoa, Milan, Rome and Venice would have wanted more sharing.

Note on arrival?

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Given that the specter of the “ad acta” commissioner that the FIGC could appoint by February, if the new rules are not implemented, it is possible that today the companies that had not read the letter to Vezzali and Malagò can draw up a note that formalize it. The clash will continue on the central question of the voting. In particular, the big clubs would be opposed to the amendment of the statute because they would like to be “protected” by a qualified majority in their decisions on economic issues. There is no doubt that the simple majority would speed up decisions and avoid blocking minorities, which have paralyzed the League very often. Moral: in terms of image, it was not a good Sunday for the Serie A League, above all because he will soon have to face Draghi on the topic of refreshments forgotten up to now by the government. And if, behind the letter, there is a strategy to aim for a change at the top, the risk of playing with fire is just around the corner.