Stories, plots and secrets of the Roman power that dictates the times of sport

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Rule number one: you don't become an electoral kingmaker . Rule number two: the best at counting votes is Giovanni Malagò (this was said by Franco Carraro, who knows a thing or two about elections, and yesterday he brought home the result). Rule number three: you mustn't bother the black knight (aka Malagò)... (this, a little more colorful, was said by Gigi Proietti). But first of all, it should be remembered, and it will be the hundredth time, and yet they continue not to understand, that the rules of politics do not apply to the politics of sport. This colorful microcosm - not so micro, the Coni , its governing body, its little parliament, the federations, the promotion bodies, the associated disciplines, the technicians, the athletes, badly counted fourteen million people represented - is not always a faithful synthesis of the universe world, it is regulated by its own laws, written and unwritten, which from the outside are often incomprehensible or even provoke indignation.

From the unlimited mandates of the presidents of sports federations (be careful, the rumor is starting to spread in the corridors that the government wants to make them publicistic like the Coni), to a certain reluctance to resign, to the complexity of an electoral system that keeps out of the council (the governing body of the Coni) all the most important federations or those with the most members, Football, Tennis, Athletics, Cycling, Volleyball, Basketball, and throws in Sports Dance (its president, Laura Lunetta, was the most voted for and perhaps one day she will have the chance to break that glass ceiling that still prevents women from leading Italian sport, Salis knows something about it), Equestrian sports, Motorcycling, Sailing. For some, the confirmation that the post-Malagò Coni starts out diminished only because it has lost its charismatic leader (and that his successor, Luciano Buonfiglio, comes from Canoeing, would somehow be the star proof of this): true, but not entirely.

And here we must return to the black knight, whom they evidently made angry. He felt he deserved another mandate, like the federal presidents: they did not want to change the law, which, modified here and there for everyone except him, ended up becoming a rule ad personam; he asked for an extension to get to Milan-Cortina, an Olympics brought home almost solely thanks to him, as president of the CONI, they did not grant it to him. So, he got it into his head to elect as his successor Luciano Buonfiglio, lord of Canoe, a serious and capable manager, a man of the machine as they used to say in the newspaper editorial offices of the desk chiefs (more vulgarly defined as stone asses), not a great joy (this is from Arpino in “Azzurro tenebra”), in short far from the profile of a showman (but perhaps, as Alex Wyse sings, after Malagò there are no more rock stars). And he made him win, or rather win big against his opponent, the former president of the Cip Luca Pancalli, supported by the Minister of Sport, Andrea Abodi, who was once his friend, then slowly distanced himself, and today is his opposite, except when both wear the Aniene jersey in the soccer tournaments that they still play on the banks of the Tiber . By the way, the much-maligned Aniene method, the strongest sports club (not military) in Italy, evolution of the Roman salons species, confirms its winningness, despite the passing years and the lack of political cover.

It is well known how the frost has fallen between the two: Malagò had received comforting reassurances from Meloni regarding an extension of his mandate, but Abodi, who, as we know, boasts a thirty-year friendship with the prime minister and who walked the streets of Rome at the beginning of his political activism, did everything to convince her to eat her words. Result: Malagò at home (not really, it is good to remember that no matter what happens he will remain a member of the CIO for a long time and, therefore, in the CONI council, and then we all know that next time he could run again), but Pancalli is not doing so well either. Abodi defeated on his own ground (as they say in Rome, he quenched his thirst with ham), that is, politics: sensing that the choice to focus on Pancalli would not arouse enthusiasm in the rest of the government, especially chez FdI, Malagò worked hard to guarantee a triumphal entry into the government (55 votes) to the president of Opes and brother of Italy Juri Morico, and a few hours before the vote he pronounced the already famous endorsement for Giorgia's abilities and the future of the nation (ipse dixit). Affection that yesterday, surprising only the naive, Meloni reciprocated.

With a perfect plot, including the final twist, the agreement with Carraro – they say closed right at Aniene – that brought Football and Basketball to Buonfiglio, Malagò has almost made a clean sweep: Bianchedi as deputy vice-president, the very faithful Di Paola (horse riding) as the other vice, as we have already mentioned Lunetta, even Ettorre (Sailing), always very close, in the council. And above all, with great personal pleasure, he has once again left Binaghi with nothing. Tennis grinds out results and millions of euros (even public ones), but politics, decidedly, is not for the Sardinian engineer.

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