Government: stop crazy spending, here’s the football austerity. The text of the decree

Football, the text of the draft decree that will establish the agency for the financial supervision of sports clubs

“Invasion of the pitch”, “entry with a straight leg”, “pressing”. The metaphors to describe the government’s initiative to establish aagency for the financial supervision of sports clubs (particularly football ones) are wasted.

The purpose of the executive is to verify the economic and financial balance of professional clubs, “also for the purposes of their registration in sports championships, the regular running of the same and fair competition”, as stated in the draft of the decree which Affaritaliani.it is able to publish in full. Since this is a draft, the Ministry of Sport would like to clarify Affaritaliani.it, is, therefore, subject to change. But not in upheavals.

“The draft with the article of law which provides for the creation of the Agency for the economic and financial supervision of professional sports clubs will not be rewritten. There will only be physiological changes but the substance will not change”, the underlining entrusted early in the morning toHandlealso in light of the controversies coming from football circles.

It will be a non-economic public body, based in Rome, under the supervision of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers or the political authority delegated by it in matters of sport.

It can be summarized as follows: by the political authority there is a desire to put a stop to expenses that transcend a club’s financial availability, avoiding the risk of uncontrolled crashes with a domino effect. In short, football is moving towards an austerity regime.

There was no warm welcome from the FIGC president, Gabriele Gravina: “I have never heard of the project to establish an agency to control the balance sheets of professional clubs before last Friday. Months ago, Minister Abodi only mentioned to me his idea of ​​reviewing the criteria for appointing the members of Covisoc, whoever says other things states falsely”, he declared to the microphones ofHandle.

“There are no rules that cannot be improved”, is the reasoning given to Affaritaliani.it by the ministry, specifying that the Minister of Sport, Andrea Abodi, promoter of the measure, “he is a man open to discussion, always”.

The president of the FIGC Gravina and the president of the CONI Giovanni Malagò – it is assured – have received the text of the law from the minister. There had already been a discussion months ago on the criteria for appointing Covisoc’s top managementthe Supervisory Commission for Professional Football Clubs, internal body of the Italian Football Federation which would be eliminated with the law being studied by the government.

What is meticulously explained to Affaritaliani.it is that financial control over professional clubs has been a hot topic since at least last summer, when a decree from the Council of Ministers intervened on the reform of the sports system in 2021 with the introduction of a rule that specifically concerns financial controls on professional clubs.

There are two considerations that are made by those who work with Abodi. Firstly, an evolved and advanced system he must always be curious to see what other high-level organizations such as the Premier League are doing. And the United Kingdom is going in this direction. Secondly, the idea is not to “expropriate” the Federation of the main decisions, such as whether or not to enroll a team in the championship, but to “best integrate” the work of the federations themselves putting them in a position to make decisions in conditions of maximum guarantee and certainty.

The correct interpretation – it is further clarified – is that of an agency that must “affirm”, and therefore certify, the financial conditions for registering a club in the championship. Then the Federation, in its autonomy, it may even decide not to register a company that is in optimal financial health because other conditions are lacking like, this is the example given, of the sudden collapse of the sports facility.

In the afternoon, in a note, Minister Abodi made it known that “the proposal to set up the Agency for the economic and financial supervision of professional sports clubs which is mobilizing the world of sport, is to make external the controls which up to now have only been carried out internally, through a third-party, public body with full regulatory and therefore decision-making autonomy”. “The proposed rule is not currently on the agenda” and “the federation, therefore, will have the necessary time to study it, study it further and make any proposals”.