Crisis-ridden Italian FA fails to elect president

Fiumicino (Italy) (AFP) – The Italian football federation (FIGC) sank further into crisis on Monday after failing to elect a new president on Monday, two-and-a-half months after the national team failed to qualify for the World Cup.

After four rounds of voting at a general meeting held in Fiumicino near Rome, none of the three candidates — the president of the Amateur League (LND) Cosimo Sibilia, the president of the third-tier Lega Pro division Gabriele Gravina and the head of the professional players’ union (AIC) Damiano Tommasi — managed to obtain a majority.

The failed elections mean that Italian football is without a president for both the FIGC and top division Serie A and has no national team coach, following Gian Piero Ventura’s dismissal post-World Cup failure.

Sibilia, Gravina and Tommasi were vying for the position left by previous president Carlo Tavecchio, who was forced to step down after the Italian national team’s elimination from this summer’s World Cup in Russia, the first time since 1958 they missed out on the tournament.

The failure to elect a president will almost certainly mean that the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) will take control of the FIGC.

CONI president Giovanni Malago had asked again on Saturday for the vote to be postponed, after previously saying that the vote should be held back for three months in order to allow Serie A to elect its president.

Tavecchio is the interim commissioner of Serie A after being nominated for the role by the FIGC in April last year.