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Giovanni Malago Getty Images
Gianluca Minchiotti
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FIGC, Malagò attacks minister Abodi: "On Bianchedi, an ungrammatical and out-of-place intervention"

Italy
Serie A

The president of the Italian Football Federation: "There is this clear intervention which, in my opinion, is absolutely wrong, in the name of what are the dynamics of the autonomy of sport"

Diana Bianchedi's decision to resign as head of delegation of the national team following the statements by the Sports Minister Andrea Abodi (who had criticised her dissenting position with president Buonfiglio over the commissioners taking charge of the weightlifting federation), "is a choice I can only share. Abodi's intervention is unconventional, ungrammatical, out of place. I believe it is impossible to say she is wrong." So says Giovanni Malagò, Figc president, on the sidelines of the Lega Pro assembly, as reported by ANSA.


"It does not seem to me that it was the minister's only outburst on issues concerning football. The facts seem very clear to me," Malagò adds.

  • "Diana was particularly troubled by the fact that the Minister for Sport is interfering in matters concerning behaviour within the board," Malagò explains. "The judgement is unanimous, if you go and look. What is happening is a fact. This is not about being friends with Mario or Carlo, Giovanni or Luciano: it is clear that there is this blatant intervention which, in my view, is absolutely wrong, in the name of the dynamics of the autonomy of sport."


    Addressing his future at the head of the FIGC, Malagò makes his position clear: "I am very calm. I may be wrong, I don't know, but I don't think so. I do this as a volunteer. I do it because I was elected and had the backing of votes. And I was called by the others. On these assumptions, why shouldn't I be calm?"

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