The registration case of Giovanni Malago, President of the Italian Football Federation, has entered a new phase, after it reached the Board of Directors of the Italian Olympic Committee on Tuesday morning, amid legal questions regarding his fulfillment of one of the conditions required to run for and be elected President of the Federation.
According to the Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, Luciano Bonfilio, President of the Italian Olympic Committee, presented to the members of the Board of Directors, including Malago himself in his capacity as a member of the International Olympic Committee, the position announced by Ugo Taucher, the General Prosecutor of Sports, that official registration is a necessary condition for candidacy and eligibility to elect the president of any sports federation.
Bonfilio explained, during the press conference that followed the Board of Directors meeting, that Toucher reiterated the necessity of the candidate having a valid registration as one of the conditions for candidacy and eligibility for election, and that the “Italian Football Federation” did not practically implement the basic principles regulating this; Which, according to this legal opinion, led to its violation.
Bonfilio said: “Taucher reiterated that possession of a valid registration must be one of the conditions for candidacy and eligibility for election, and that the (Italian Football Federation) did not practically apply the basic principles, and thus they were violated. Therefore, the Italian Olympic Committee, which supervises all federations, will conduct the appropriate legal investigations.”
The Board of Directors of the Italian Olympic Committee must take a position on the issue, but Bonfilio stressed the necessity of conducting legal reviews first, explaining that he will not undertake this task himself, but rather it will be entrusted to well-known jurists and specialists in the sports field.
He added: “(The Italian Football Federation) deserves respect like all other federations. We do not seek rush, but rather legal certainty, and this is what we will work on during the coming days, which I hope will not be many.”
The President of the Italian Olympic Committee stressed that he does not deal with the issue as a personal matter, but rather based on his responsibility towards the institution he represents and Italian sports, explaining: “I do not personalize anything at all, and I work only for the interests of the party I represent and the world of sports. We must not forget that (the Italian Olympic Committee) is a public body, and I am a public official.”
Regarding the way in which the issue was discussed within the meeting, Bonfilio explained that the discussion was limited, after he presented the document related to the file and asked the members to comment on it, before giving Malago an opportunity to present his point of view.
He said: “We discussed the matter quite a bit; Because I presented the document and asked to comment on it, I thought it was legitimate to give Malago an opportunity to speak and present his point of view. "Giovanni is not angry with me."
Bonfilio acknowledged that the issue does not serve the image of football or Italian sports in general, adding: “It is clear that all of this is not in the interest of football and the sports world, as such conditions do not allow us to live in peace. “I see that there are indications of a defect in performance.”
He continued: “In a world where respect for the rules has begun to decline somewhat, sports still adhere to them. When we talk about the need to be role models for our youth, we must then be consistent with what we say.”
For his part, Malago spoke after leaving the meeting, stressing his appreciation for the way Bonfilio presented the issue before the Board of Directors, and said: “Bonfilio read two substantive pages before the Board, and I appreciated that very much. All I did was add some of my notes; Not because what was presented included incorrect things, but rather I added some elements that may have been missing.”
Daniel Maldini, the son of one of the most famous Italian football players, defended himself against allegations of drug use, following a traffic accident that occurred while he was driving under the influence of alcohol. According to The Athletic, Maldini, a Cagliari player, was involved in a traffic accident in the early hours of last Sunday morning, after his Porsche Carrera collided with another car in the city of Milan.
The accident came hours after he excelled against his former team, “Atalanta,” in the nearby city of Bergamo, where he gave a decisive performance that led “Cagliari” to victory in the match.
Maldini underwent a test to measure the percentage of alcohol in exhaled air, and it was found that the 24-year-old player, the son of Milan legend Paolo Maldini, exceeded the permissible legal limit for the percentage of alcohol while driving. As a result, his driving license was suspended.
After Italian media published reports claiming that Maldini did not pass a preliminary drug test conducted by the police, the player published, via his Instagram account, the results of a separate examination that he underwent at a clinic in the city of Cagliari.
The results published by Maldini showed no traces of amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, methadone, ecstasy, opioids or buprenorphine, a prescription opioid drug.
Danilo Bongiorno, Maldini's lawyer, touched on the circulating reports of positive results in toxicology tests, describing these reports as "unfounded."
Bongiorno stressed that Maldini “reserves his right to protect the player’s reputation” by taking “civil and criminal measures.”
Beppe Rizzo, Maldini's agent, also defended his client, saying: “No one doubts the fact that Daniel made a mistake, but there are mistakes and mistakes.”
He added: “You must be careful about what you write and the titles you use. It requires more care and respect. There is always a search for the most influential story from a media standpoint, with the aim of putting him in a difficult position.”
Rizzo continued: “Daniel is one of the few players we have in Italy who has real talent.”
Maldini participated in 6 international matches with the Italian national team, and also made a strong start to the current season, after scoring in his team’s last two victories.
Cagliari currently occupies fifth place in the standings, in the team's best start in the league since the early 1970s.
Tommaso Giulini, president of Cagliari, spoke about the crisis on Tuesday morning, on the sidelines of a shareholders’ meeting at the headquarters of the Italian League in Milan. “As a father, I always tell my children not to drive a car or a motorcycle when they go out to have an alcoholic drink,” Golini said. “I think Daniel knows that too, and that next time he won’t make the same kind of mistakes that could put his safety and the safety of others at risk.”
He added: “What we read in some media coverage during the past few hours has shocked us. “At the moment, it seems to me that traces of drugs are in the newspapers more than anywhere else, and this is extremely dangerous.”
The Cagliari president continued: “We trust the young man’s good faith, and he confirms that he did not take any drugs, and that the matter did not go beyond consuming a few alcoholic drinks, which was confirmed by the results of the alcohol test.”
Daniel Maldini returned to Cagliari training on Monday. The question remains, now, about whether the player will reserve a place in the Italian team roster led by Roberto Mancini, in preparation for the upcoming matches in the European Nations League, which includes two matches against Turkey, in addition to two matches against France and Belgium.
Lens turns; The French Cup holder has dismissed his German coach, Dino Topmüller, from his position after only 6 matches in assuming his technical duties, and he will not be on the bench against Monaco on Friday, according to what the newspaper “L’Equipe” reported on Tuesday.
Topmüller (45 years old) was appointed coach of the Lens team in mid-June, succeeding Pierre Sage, and began his duties by winning the “Champions Cup (French Super Cup)” at the expense of Paris Saint-Germain 1-0, before his results in the league declined at the beginning of the season. He only gained 4 points after 4 stages, ranking 10th.
He also achieved a difficult victory at the beginning of his continental adventure against host Slavia Prague, Czech Republic, 3-2, in the Champions League.
The Lens administration against Monaco may assign the coaching duties to Yannick Cahuzac, who returns to the team this summer as Toppüller’s assistant, after working as Olivier Pantaloni’s assistant in Lorient.
After Lens's crushing victory over Auxerre 5-2 after winning the Champions Cup, weaknesses began to appear in his defensive and offensive performance, and these points were confirmed in the next two matches with two defeats to Strasbourg 1-2 and Lorient 0-1.
The victory over host Slavia Prague on Thursday in the unified group of the main continental competition, which was achieved after numerical superiority in the second half, was not enough for Topmüller to save his position and dispel the doubts surrounding his team’s loss of control since the beginning of the season.
Topmüller hoped that the victory in Czechia would be a turning point, but Lens performed very poorly in the first half against Le Mans on Sunday, settling for a 2-2 draw.
The German coach arrived in mid-June to face the daunting task of succeeding former coach Sage, who led the team to win the French Cup for the first time in its history, and finished second in Ligue 1 last season.
But the former coach, who worked as an assistant to his compatriot Julian Nagelsmann at Bayern Munich and as coach of Eintracht Frankfurt, failed to convince the French club’s management to give him more time.
“The most important thing for any coach is to have enough time to work with the players and implement strategies,” he said before the team’s trip to Le Mans on Saturday.
The German coach also struggled to find the ideal lineup, and was repeatedly forced to change his starting lineup due to the many injuries the team suffered at the beginning of the season. Most notably, the injury to its brilliant Saudi defender, Saud Abdel Hamid, who had scored a goal in the five-point win over Auxerre.
