CONI hints Malago removed and FIGC under special commissioner on October 6

ROME, ITALY - DECEMBER 15: CONI President Giovanni Malago' attends the Italian Olympic Commitee 'Collari d'Oro' Awards ceremony on December 15, 2015 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)

CONI President Luciano Buonfiglio confirms a decision will be made on whether to place the FIGC under a special commissioner on October 6, hinting Giovanni Malagò will be removed.

The expectation is that the CONI will rule Malagò did not have the required paperwork to run for President of the Italian Football Federation, so the landslide electoral victory in June will be considered null and void.

This is because Malagò had until recently been President of the CONI (Italian Olympic Committee) and was not a registered member of the FIGC (Italian Football Federation).

Malagò era at FIGC to be ended early

“This morning, we began the process for the committee that will be held on October 6, and it will be followed by the national council session,” said Buonfiglio.

“We are well prepared to not leave any room for interpretation. We’ll send the four opinions from our judges to the Presidents of the various Federations and all the members of the committee.

“We will make sure that the committee cannot assume personalist attitudes by going outside of the area we must decide on.”

This all points directly to the foregone conclusion that Malagò will be removed because his election in June 2026 was illegitimate due to the lack of suitable paperwork.

“We are called to make a decision, without ifs or buts,” continued Buonfiglio.

“As a public official, it is my duty to document that these four opinions are rock solid. I will send out the written opinions in good time so nobody can say they were uninformed.

“I have no doubts on the sense of responsibility and belonging to the sporting world. It is necessary that we restore ethics and the respect of the rules, because we talk about these values, but when push comes to shove, we lack the courage and consistency to apply them.”

The FIGC is therefore set to be placed under a special commissioner after October 6, the timing of which was planned to avoid removing the Federation President in the middle of the Nations League break.

It won’t affect the job of Italy coach Roberto Mancini, but any other reforms that Malagò was in the process of overseeing look as if they will be at the very least put on ice, if not shelved entirely.

A new election will be organised, and if Malagò did get FIGC membership (which would not be particularly difficult to do), he might not now have the support from every Serie A club that he did back in June.

All of this is over a simple technicality, one that those voting at the time were not particularly concerned with, and could’ve been resolved if at the time of the election they had changed the rule to allow his candidacy or simply acknowledged its irrelevance.

Officially, Minister for Sport Andrea Abodi has to stay out of this to avoid political interference, but the split between Abodi and Malago is evident.