Danilo Gallinari engaged in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Olympics against France. From basketball come very harsh words against Sport and Health
Petrucci attacks Sport and Health: “Change philosophy or basketball will go on its own”
The 2021 that is about to close will be remembered as the year of grace of Italian sport, but its governance continues to be discussed. Sports policy is no less intricate than parliamentary policy, at least in terms of management complexity and controversy. It is also clear from the interview in which Gianni Petrucci, president of the Basketball Federation, disputes with the government company Sport and Health: “If he intends to move forward with his philosophy, we will move forward with ours, taking another direction,” he told the Messenger.
The knot of public contributions
The main issue in the dispute is the distribution of public contributions to the individual federations, which in the days before Christmas sparked the protest of some disciplines (in addition to basketball, also swimming, winter sports and bowls), according to which Sport and Health it would have used questionable criteria in this breakdown. Obviously, the SpA led by the dg Diego Nepi he flatly rejected these criticisms, stating that he “always adopted objective and non-discretionary criteria in the distribution of contributions to sports organizations. It is necessary to know sport in all its aspects, promotion and high level, have the skills and abilities to distribute over three years beyond two billions of public resources in favor of sports organizations, individuals (sports collaborators), SSD and ASD, helping to alleviate the impact of an extraordinary event such as the pandemic “.
Giorgetti, Malagò and the sport reform
To better understand the complexity of the problem, we need to take a step back. Founded in 1993, Sport e Salute underwent a clear change of pace in 2019, when Giancarlo Giorgetti – then undersecretary with responsibility for Sport – redistributed the tasks, assigning them some functions previously in the hands of Coni. The choice did not make him happy at all Giovanni Malagò, which turned to the International Olympic Committee to report an interference by the State in the autonomy of sport, provided for by the Olympic charter: Sport and Health is in fact 100% owned by Mef. Italy even risked a very heavy penalty: participating in the Tokyo Olympics without the tricolor flag. Instead, fortunately, the flag was there and waved a lot, also thanks to a reform of the sport that saw the correction in the running of some distortions (such as the exclusion of female athletes from professionalism, rightly removed).
The decisive mediation of Gianni Letta
Other problems remained on the field, such as the transfer to Sport and Health of the organic plant del Coni, an issue that has caused some operational embarrassments. The knot was dissolved on Christmas Eve, thanks to the amendment to the budget law that brought a team of 165 people under the hat of Coni. “Skills of a lifetime, which Coni did not want to deprive itself of”, said Malagò, applauding the triumph of common sense. The operation was possible thanks to the intervention of Gianni Letta, who has always been an admirer of the number 1 of Coni, who has opened a constructive dialogue with Renato Brunetta, Minister for Public Administration. Gianni Petrucci is also notoriously close to Malagò, with whom he shares a long and solid background of knowledge of the world of sport. This is why his words are important to understand how the landscape is certainly more serene, but not cloudless.
Petrucci: basketball ready to “tear”
The President of Federbasket denies being envious of other federations that have had major contributions: “But for heaven’s sake. The question is more serious. There are several things I don’t agree with about Sport and Health. The distribution of contributions is only one of the points, but it is intolerable when they say that the criteria adopted are objective. It’s a mistery”. The former President of Coni, as well as extraordinary commissioner of the Football Federation, does not deny that more money has come to Italian sport, but he asks himself: “To whom? And with what criteria? For example, they calculated the difference in taxation What’s between professional and amateur sports? Yet, in the decrees that the government has passed for reimbursements to companies, the calculation has more rewarded those most penalized, who have had to incur exorbitant expenses. This means that the state knows the difference, but Sport and Health no. But in general, I contest the different management philosophy, even in the initiatives that have been taken and that have nothing to do with grassroots sport. Ultimately, if Sport and Health wants basketball to collaborate, it will have to completely change its philosophy “.
“Basketball can be autonomous”
Petrucci hopes for a resolving intervention by the undersecretary Valentina Vezzali, reserving words for honey also for Diego Nepi (“An important resource”), for the head of the Sports department Michele Sciscioli (“Is always available with basketball”) and of course also for Malagò (“He is good and he is a hard worker, I give him a high grade”). However, this does not make the subject less thorny: remembering that basketball before the pandemic produced independently 80-85% of its resources and therefore “if he wants he can be self-sufficient”, Petrucci affirms precisely that if Sport e Salute continues on its own path, Federbasket will undertake its own. And on the hypothesis that basketball can do without the contribution of the state leaves no room for interpretation: “Our lawyers are at work”.