29MAY

Italy votes for a FIGC president

4 min read

15:10UTC

Italy's FIGC elects a president on 22 June, a clean Malago-Abete race after ANAC cleared Giovanni Malago, with the winner inheriting a EUR5.5 billion club-debt file.

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Key takeaway

Italy's new federation president inherits a EUR5.5bn debt file fixable only through three reforms that need parliament.

Italy's FIGC (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio) elects a president on Monday 22 June, a clean two-horse race after ANAC (Italy's anti-corruption authority) cleared Giovanni Malago on 18 June . Malago carries Serie A backing and roughly 18% of delegates; Giancarlo Abete, the Lega Dilettanti (amateur leagues) candidate, holds about 34%. The vote proceeds without the legal cloud that hung over it after ANAC missed an earlier eligibility deadline .

The winner inherits a documented EUR5.5 billion club-debt file, which makes the first task legislative rather than sporting. Three reforms all need parliament: reinstatement of the Growth Decree tax break for signing young Italians, repeal of the 2018 gambling-advertising ban, and a 1% levy on betting turnover earmarked for football. None can be enacted by federation vote.

That is the mechanism behind the candidate field. A FIGC president can set national-team policy and run the leagues, but cannot legislate, so the debt file can only move through laws the new president lobbies for rather than passes. The clubs backed Malago, a former CONI head with cross-bench access, over a former-player candidate because the job that matters is in parliament, not the dressing room. The presidency is decided in a hall in Rome; the file it inherits is decided across the Tiber.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

The FIGC (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio) is the organisation that runs football in Italy, including the national team. On 22 June, 274 FIGC delegates will vote to choose a new president from two candidates: Giovanni Malago, backed by Italy's top professional clubs in Serie A, and Giancarlo Abete, backed by Italy's vast network of amateur clubs. The winner of this election takes on the administration of Italian football, from the national team to the amateur leagues, and also inherits a major financial problem. Italian professional clubs collectively owe EUR 5.5 billion. Fixing it requires three changes to Italian law, which means the new FIGC president needs to persuade parliament to act. Neither candidate has yet shown a clear path to delivering those votes.

What could happen next?

Consequence
ANAC's 18 June clearance of Malago resolved the only remaining legal obstacle to the election; the 22 June vote proceeds as a clean two-horse race between Malago's Serie A bloc (roughly 18% of delegates) and Abete's Lega Dilettanti bloc (roughly 34%).
Immediate · Reported
Risk
The EUR 5.5 billion debt file requires parliamentary action on three separate reforms; federation elections have no direct mechanism to compel legislative votes, meaning the winner's ability to address the structural crisis depends on political capital neither candidate has demonstrated.
Medium term · Assessed
Opportunity
A Malago win, with Serie A's 18 clubs behind him, could accelerate the Growth Decree reinstatement and gambling-ban repeal if the Meloni government sees commercial-football-revenue recovery as aligned with its economic programme.
Medium term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: The Italian cycling federation's 2014 governance crisis, where a contested presidential election followed by a debt-ridden professional league created a two-year institutional paralysis, provides the nearest structural precedent.

The resolution required direct government intervention via CONI. Italy's football federation faces an analogous alignment problem: the federation's internal politics and the financial reforms that require external parliamentary action are governed by different actor sets.

Counter-parallel: Gabriele Gravina's 2018 FIGC presidential election, which followed the Italian national team's failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, produced a reform mandate that Gravina partially executed.

The difference between 2018 and 2026 is that Gravina's reform programme required cooperation from a small number of club owners and UEFA; the 2026 reform programme requires an act of parliament, a category of dependence that federation elections have not historically been able to deliver.

The EUR 5.5 billion collective debt figure, presented by outgoing president Gravina in his parliamentary report , represents annual losses above EUR 730 million across Italian professional clubs. The three proposed reforms address different dimensions of this structural problem.

The Growth Decree reinstatement targets the tax treatment of football player contracts: the original decree, introduced in 2019 and phased out in 2024, reduced income tax on footballers relocating to Italy from abroad to 50% of their earnings, lowering net labour costs for clubs competing in transfer markets. Repeal cost the clubs an estimated EUR 300-400 million annually in additional wage bills.

The gambling-advertising ban, introduced in 2018 via the Dignity Decree, removed a revenue stream that Italian clubs had relied on for jersey and stadium-naming sponsorship. Industry estimates put the annual revenue impact at EUR 180-200 million across the top three professional tiers. A 1% betting levy on all Italian-licensed operators, projected at roughly EUR 160 million annually, is designed to provide a ring-fenced replacement revenue channel.

Consensus view: Sports governance researchers at the Transparency International Sport unit have documented that football federation elections where the winning coalition is built on amateur-league blocs, as Abete's Lega Dilettanti base represents, tend to produce presidents with stronger grassroots legitimacy but weaker leverage over professional club interests, which are the primary source of the debt the FIGC must address.

Malago's Serie A backing inverts this: commercial credibility, weaker amateur-league support, and a reform programme requiring parliamentary coalitions neither bloc directly controls.

Counter-view: The Lega Dilettanti's 34% bloc represents hundreds of thousands of affiliated clubs across Italy, a constituency with presence in every parliamentary constituency.

Abete's backers argue that a president whose mandate comes from the amateur pyramid, rather than commercially motivated Serie A clubs, carries more cross-party credibility when asking parliament to reinstate tax breaks and restructure gambling levies that affect the full football ecosystem, from grassroots to the top flight.

Key tension: Whether the candidate who wins on 22 June on the basis of federation-assembly arithmetic can translate that mandate into the parliamentary access that the EUR 5.5 billion debt-crisis file actually requires.

Sources:SBS News

Mentions:FIGC →Giovanni Malagò →Giancarlo Abete →ANAC →Lega Dilettanti →Serie A →UEFA →Gabriele Gravina →Growth Decree →Italy →World Cup →Rome →CONI →

First Reported In

Update #24 · USA through, Pulisic out with calf

SBS News· 20 Jun 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

ANAC clears Malago for FIGC vote

ANAC's clearance of Malago (ID:4339) on 18 June directly enabled the clean two-horse FIGC race on 22 June.

Occurred 18 Jun 2026

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ANAC misses ruling; Malago vote runs

ANAC's earlier missed eligibility deadline (ID:4289) had left the FIGC election in legal limbo; the clearance in this window resolved that.

Occurred 15 Jun 2026

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This Event

Italy votes for a FIGC president

The new president's first task is legislative not sporting: three reforms to address the debt all require parliament, which is why clubs backed an administrator over a former player.

Led to

Malago wins the vote to rebuild Italy

The 22 June FIGC presidential vote, set up after ANAC cleared Malago, produced a 68.58% victory that far exceeded the pre-vote 54/46 estimate.

Occurred 22 Jun 2026

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