At the end of today’s Federal Council, the FIGC President Gabriele Gravina spoke at the press conference: “Today was a council focused on the appointment set some time ago for the definitive discussion and to take a further step forward on the statute reform project that we will present by the 30th, as far as I’m concerned. Any further proposals from the delegates must arrive by 7pm on November 1st, so as to arrive at November 4th where any changes can be proposed before the approval of the statute. The climate was calm in the two macro-areas of intervention, both on autonomy and on representations. I wanted to remind the entire council of the presentation strategy of the three meetings that we held before the council, a working method that started from a series of reflections. The first is to understand what is meant by the weight of representation within the governing bodies in function and in reference to the economic value. We must also put together and give weight to a very important expression which in our opinion refers to article 33 of the constitution where the function and social value of sport is defined. A function that is carried out in a particular way by the National Amateur League which has more than 60% of the political weight in other Federations. We are an association within our country recognized by CONI. The other issue concerns a clear principle, I have heard many figures in recent hours. The figure is never correct and is always in excess, there is a fundamental theme or all of this is the natural consequence that the Serie A League has made with the centralization of rights and which it must maintain due to a provision from the European Union. There remains the issue of a rule, I won’t go into the merits of whether it is authoritative or receptive, but I consider it a good starting point and a stimulus for reflection which we have focused on in recent months. It is no coincidence that we will be discussing this in the Assembly on November 4th. The indications in the governing bodies are clearly underlined, if he wanted to be more precise he established a specific weight where the weight of coaches and players cannot be greater than 30%. We must respect the statutory principles, we want to respect our statutory principles and the principles of a state law. I believe our proposal is coherent and adds a qualitative element to this quantitative element. I believe the granting of autonomy to the Lega Serie A is an epochal fact that is going unnoticed and goes beyond what is permitted to the Premier League. We went further than the Premier and this was not foreseen in any law, in fact this same measure was rejected by Parliament”.
Can you tell us the next appointments before next Monday’s Assembly?
“There is the federal president’s proposal which must be presented by October 30th. We also call proposals from other delegates and they can be presented by 7pm on November 1st, then they will all be analyzed in the Assembly. If we say that the political weight of the Lega Serie A is 15, if it is voted by half plus one in the Assembly that the weight must be 18 then this amendment will be accepted. If the president’s proposal receives more than 50% plus one vote, all other proposals will not be accepted.”
What is the precise issue with Serie A?
“He did not express any problems, the federal president has his prerogative to present his own proposal. I wanted to gather all the opinions, last Monday the Lega Serie A held an Assembly and we met their requests. After having clarified some situations we have found greater autonomy, even the referees will no longer have political weight so as to be freed from political limitations. Only on two issues is there a critical issue revealed, the stalemate is on the management of annual activities, mainly licensing. The second is linked to the number of non-EU citizens, a stalemate remains but in the end it cannot be changed. We listen but there is no agreement so the current rules remain. We need to deal with a state law, this discussion of the agreement or binding opinion advises both parties involved to be more responsible towards the system and use common sense”.
Do you expect part of Serie A to vote in your favour?
“From what I saw today in the council there is a very large majority that shares this process, I think that the proposal we are discussing can be considered shared by a very high percentage. I have reason to believe, without going into the merits of the assessments, that the Lega Serie A has always asked, wanted and defended autonomy. I believe that it is unlikely that all clubs will be willing to lose the concept of autonomy by negotiating an additional director”.