The Malagò case: ahead of the CONI executive committee meeting, lawyers say ‘membership is essential’
The new president did not meet the requirement deemed essential for election as head of the Football Association
In the days leading up to the CONI National Executive Committee meeting to decide on placing the FIGC under special administration, the views of the four legal experts consulted by Luciano Buonfiglio have been leaked, regarding the position of the Italian Football Federation’s new president, Giovanni Malagò. The crux of the matter is the failure to register members, which, according to the lawyers, ‘is essential’.
The FIGC, therefore, could be placed under administration. According to Alberto Angeletti, a specialist in administrative, labour and sports law who has frequently represented CONI in court, ‘there can be no doubt that one of the requirements for candidacy must be the possession of a valid membership card on the date of the general meeting’.
Franco Gaetano Scoca, a legal scholar and professor emeritus of Administrative Law at La Sapienza University, wrote, ‘The election of a non-member is invalid.’
Massimo Coccia, an arbitrator at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne and deputy special commissioner of the FIGC during the Calciopoli era, shares this view: ‘Membership is a subjective requirement for candidacy and, consequently, eligibility.’ Coccia went on to add that, under the Federation’s statutes, there is no such thing as irregular membership.
In this regard, the former FIGC lawyer, Luigi Medugno, who refers to ‘in claris non fit interpretatio’ (‘there is no interpretation of clear matters’), speaking of ‘CONI’s duty to fulfil the supervisory and monitoring functions it is called upon to exercise’, argues that whilst lawyer Renato Miele, a candidate for the FIGC presidency, could have lodged an appeal against Malagò’s election, ‘CONI does not have the power to challenge the assembly’s decision’.
