Italian Olympic committee step in to run oversee crisis-ridden FA

Rome (AFP) – Italy’s Olympic Committee (CONI) on Thursday appointed Roberto Fabbricini as commissioner to oversee the crisis-ridden Italian football federation (FIGC).

CONI secretary general Fabbricini will be assisted by former AC Milan star Alessandro “Billy” Costacurta and legal expert Angelo Clarizia. The trio were appointed after the FIGC election failed to produce a new president, two-and-a-half months after the national team crashed out of the World Cup precipitating a crisis.

The vacuum extends beyond the FIGC as the Italian top division, Serie A, has only had an interim president for almost a year and the national team has no coach, following Gian Piero Ventura’s dismissal.

“I believe this is the best, the right way,” said CONI president Giovanni Malago adding that among the commissioners  “no-one has held previous roles with the FIGC. There is a discontinuity with the governance and (CONI) gave them a full mandate. 

“We must avoid the FIGC returning to a similar situation when this commissioner role ends.”

In Monday’s FIGC vote, none of the three presidential candidates — Amateur League chief Cosimo Sibilia, the president of the third-tier Lega Pro division Gabriele Gravina and the head of the professional players’ union Damiano Tommasi — could obtain a majority.

Tommasi finished bottom in the second and third rounds and was eliminated. In the fourth ballot, the two remaining candidates each required more than 50 per cent to win, yet neither could manage that. Gravina received 39.06 percent of the vote, Sibilia 1.85 percent, but 59.09 percent of voters left their ballots blank.