The president of the National Amateur Team Giancarlo Abete gave his introductory speech on the day of the Assembly which is taking place in Rome and will modify the Federation Statute: “On behalf of the Amateur League, I want to extend a greeting to the family of Santo Romano, killed a few days ago. One of our members, goalkeeper of a representative of the Campania regional committee. Perhaps we are talking about one of those people represented by article 33, naturally sorry having to intervene clearly on a topic that goes far beyond the approval of a proposal, but concerns respect within some worlds. We will vote in favor of President Gravina’s proposal, but with bitterness for some of the contents of the proposal an amendment was presented in Parliament with four points of reference: autonomy, binding opinion, skipping sports justice and changing the levels of representation in the Assembly and in the Council. This proposal was followed by a very harsh letter from UEFA and FIFA and in light of this proposal, given that the proponent said he was not certain of the letter from UEFA and FIFA, there was no longer any talk of skipping sports justice, there is no longer any mention of autonomy or a binding opinion. We are only talking about the governing bodies of the Federation, therefore 50% of one of the four proposed points. We had a situation in which there was talk of a new era after this amendment, but this certifies that professionals must rightly have an influence on the governing bodies”.
On the reduction of the electoral weight of the Amateur League in the FIGC Statute, this is Abete’s thoughts: “The Federal President recalled that in England the weight of amateurs is 66%, 63% in France, over 50% in Germany and 43% in Spain. I don’t know that England or Spain don’t have achieved important results and international successes despite the minimal weight of the main leagues. The professionals in England have two representatives out of 10, only one from the Premier League. I only know that since 2017, when Maurizio Beretta left the presidency of Lega Serie A, there There were nine people who led the League, the problem that we respect cannot be placed on the Federation which is not an association of capitals. In the past there were presidents of the Serie A League who respected the other components, a respect that does not exist. it’s more. President Casini did not point out that the amendment presented at the last moment removes 10% of voters and two councillors, without communicating it at all.
And finally: “If this is the way to respect the components, we are not there. I will ask the Federal President to send this amendment to UEFA and FIFA to understand if the current rules will be respected. When we talk about common sense, pay attention to what is meant by good sense. Until there is a different scenario we are not willing to give up even 0.1% of our 34% which is the lowest share in Europe a league that is the driving force of the system and cannot have a much lower weight than those who practice football for pleasure. Decree 36 provides for employment contracts for those who practice football, they are clearly poor contracts but there are over 30 thousand contracts. The work applies to everyone , they are workers and deserve respect.”