Serie A confirmed Giovanni Malagò, the current CONI (Italian Olympic Committee) president, as its candidate for the FIGC presidency on 13 April, with 18 of 20 clubs backing him 1. The result settles the race into an establishment contest, not the former-player field that Sports Minister Andrea Abodi had briefed into the press in early April . Giancarlo Abete, a former FIGC president, is the candidate of the Lega Dilettanti, the amateur leagues federation. Lega Serie B is expected to follow Serie A. Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Del Piero and Demetrio Albertini appear in the conversation as post-election appointees under a new president, not as candidates.
Malagò will present his programme on 20 April. Three headline items: reinstatement of the Growth Decree, the fiscal instrument that gave Italian clubs a tax break for signing under-21s; repeal of the 2018 advertising ban on gambling sponsorship; and a 1% levy on sports betting turnover earmarked for football. All three require a parliamentary vote, which is precisely why the clubs have backed a CONI president with the cross-bench relationships to move them, rather than a former player whose authority is sentimental rather than legislative.
The vacuum the new president inherits is wider than the office itself. Gianluigi Buffon vacated his FIGC national-team role on 2 April alongside Gabriele Gravina's exit from the presidency after Italy's elimination by Bosnia . Head coach Gennaro Gattuso is described in Italian outlets as likely to depart. Candidates must declare by roughly 13 May; the Federal Council votes on 22 June. By the time the new president takes office, the national team setup will have been emptied at three layers simultaneously.
The pattern this confirms is the same one Antalya exposed on the Iran file: government-briefed narratives overtaken by institutional decisions made by the federations themselves. Abodi spoke for a former-player race; Donyamali spoke for relocation. Neither found their own federation in the room behind them.
