The ball has one obsession: to get back the sponsors of the betting, which are worth millions of euros. To do this, however, it is necessary to abolish or at least lighten the ban imposed in 2018 by the famous Dignity Decree. A crusade of the world of football that has been going on for three years: now the good window to snatch this and other aid from the government is that of budget law. And the pressures start again. TO Palazzo Chigi a technical table was staged between all the parties interested in unblocking the situation. This time, in front of the undersecretary Valentina Vezzali there was the world of compact sport: there were also basketball e volley (in particular the Fip president, Gianni Petrucci, and n. 1 of the Volleyball League, Maximum Righi). But it is clear that the greatest thrust always comes from the ball, which has the highest profit margins and in fact is presented in full force: the Figs with Gravina and Serie A with Dal Pino e From Servant, even the C Series of Ghirelli. Everyone is reduced to the barrel of gas and everyone wants back the millions that come from betting.
The request starts from one finding objective. Since the Decree Dignity, advertising for betting in sporting events has not disappeared. Just turn on the TV or open the Internet sites to notice: at every cup game or foreign championship you continue to see jerseys, logos and brands of society that sponsor foreign teams. And on the other hand it would be impossible to obscure them. The prohibition hit and ended up penalizing only Italian sport. Only the Serie A complains of losses of 100 million a year, probably exaggerates them considering that in the much richer one Premier League the turnover stops at 80, but these are noteworthy figures. Which in the lean period of Covid would be so convenient for football, and for sport in general. So right there Football League Serie A brought a new concrete proposal to the table: if first the idea promoted above all by Figs was to get a temporary suspension of a couple of years in conjunction with the emergency, now the request is to drop the ban for the indirect advertising which is collected by the sports club, leaving it in effect for that direct that ends up on TV. To be clear: yes to the logo on the shirt or on the billboards on the sidelines, no to the spot on TV in which the football player promotes the bet. Perhaps by promoting campaigns for awareness raising on the theme of ludopathy in exchange for this concession.
At the technical table they expressed an unfavorable opinion the e Caritas, recalling the ethical question at the basis of the provision. It remains to be seen what he will think of the government. Until today the prohibition had been defended with the sword drawn from M5s, which of the dignity decree had made one of his horses of battle. The recent assaults had also aroused the uprising of the Grillini parliamentarians. Today, however, the situation is different, the Movement he is more deprived of sports, and he no longer has a minister Spadafora, with the delegation passed into the hands of Vezzali which refers to the Giorgetti area of the League. For now, the undersecretary remains cautious: “The goal – she said – is to verify the margins of a regulatory intervention to stem the economic penalization complained of by the world of sport and, at the same time, confirm the firm opposition to the phenomenon of ludopathy“. In the meantime, football tries, and will continue to try.
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