An earthquake, not too unexpected. Paolo Dal Pino is no longer the president of Lega Serie A, a choice gained in recent weeks, which has become official today. Behind the resignation, officially, there are family reasons, with the Lombard executive who moved his family to Los Angeles, where he is CEO of the Telit company, but it is undeniable that the decision was affected by the climate of mistrust towards him on the part of the majority of club presidents. Poisons and rifts, confirmed between the lines of the farewell note: “I tried to propose ideas and innovation in a context resistant to change. I am proud to have worked with a very close unity of purpose with the FIGC and I thank the Federal President Gabriele Gravina, gentleman, lover of this sport and inspired guide of Italian football and the principles of fairness and sporting loyalty with whom I shared two years of battles. side by side to survive the pandemic and to try to relaunch Italian football in the midst of infinite external and internal difficulties “.
The straw that broke the camel’s back is the secret ballot by the club presidents of A, che promoted as independent director Gaetano Blandini, Lotito’s candidate and not Ezio Simonelli, the name he brought to the assembly, and above all the friction of the clubs to standardize the statute to the guiding principles of the Coni (which provide, among other things, a simple and unskilled majority for resolutions), complete with a bellicose approach towards the FIGC, which in response gave until February 15 to adapt, threatening the commissioner. The transition from qualified to simple majority is not just a bureaucratic aspect. As he writes Republic today, for example, 14 votes out of 20 are needed to change the management of archival television rights and the management of the video production of matches. The result is that the big players (Inter, Milan, Juve and Napoli above all) thanks to alliances with other clubs they have so far always managed to manage them on their own, opposing the hypothesis of collective management, advocated by small clubs.
Dal Pino leaves Italian football at an uncertain, extremely delicate moment. For the negotiations with the government, between the turnout in the stadiums and the refreshments, and for the growing tensions with the FIGC of which, according to his enemies, he had become an ally. Dal Pino wanted reforms in an old world, not finding the support he was looking for. Starting with the entry of the funds, initially approved and then rejected by Inter and Juve, enticed by the Super League. Now, as there is no vice president, elections will be called as soon as possible (an extraordinary assembly has been called for Monday 7 February), as indicated by Gravina. Lotito will try to impose a man of his own, but 14 preferences are needed and at the moment no one has them. With Lotito, in addition to Lazio, there are Udinese, Inter, Fiorentina, Samp, Verona, etc. Milan, Rome, Turin and others are against. Juve have not taken a position at the moment. The battle has just begun. –
