After the case of Norma Gimondi, the FCI would like to clarify the following.
- The Federal Council, in its meeting of 26-27 March 2022, unanimously resolved, in order to increase revenues from advertising and sponsorships, to recognize commissions in favor of any intermediaries;
- in the Federal Council held in Milan on 18/06/2022 it was envisaged to recognize the remuneration for intermediaries in the various sponsorship contracts, in a single context, specifying in any case that the payments of the commissions would take place only after the execution of the supplies o of the related actual collections and in proportion to the contribution of the sponsors. Point approved unanimously by those present;
- The Team Manager Roberto Amadio, who had personally dealt with the sponsorship proposals with the sponsors Buzzati and Enervit (only increase of the sponsorship in place), having ongoing contacts aimed at finding new partnerships with Reiwa Management Ltd, indicated to the federal offices to evaluate the possibility of including in this context also the transactions in progress, with the aim of having relations with a single interlocutor as established by the Board.
The other subjects who have accrued commissions for a total amount of 106 thousand euros are: Dr. Gianni Monti for the TCI contract, Futura Eventi srl for Dolomia Water, Maurizio Verri for MP Filtri;
- In the meantime, the General Secretariat initiated and held various interlocutions, with the exchange of related draft contracts, with Reiwa at the conclusion of which, the negotiations had no follow-up;
- Following the indication of the Team Manager, in the preparation of the summary minutes of the meeting of the Federal Council of 18 June 2022, drawn up subsequently, the Federal Official in charge of this assignment, erroneously entered the name of Reiwa as the subject to whom to disburse the commissions of sponsorship;
- In the Federal Council of 06/08/2022, vice-president Gimondi noted the transcription error of the minutes of the previous session. Having recognized the incongruity, the President and the Secretary General in that context postponed the reconstruction of what had happened to the next Council;
- In the subsequent meeting of the Federal Council of 27 August 2022 it was definitively clarified that a resolution authorizing a payment to Reiwa Management Ltd had never been adopted, that no contract had ever been concluded between the FCI and that company and, again, more important, no commission payment orders had ever been issued or executed.
This is the chronology of events. For the purpose of a close reconstruction of the facts, it is also worth remembering that:
- Although the Federal Council had unanimously given, on June 18, the delegation to President Dagnoni to sign with the intermediary, the Federation did not consider it appropriate to conclude this agreement with Reiwa or with any other subject already before the Council of 6 August;
- The Federal Council of August 27 did not stop with the exit from the room of vice president Norma Gimondi but continued to operate. Further decisions were made since the quorum did not cease to exist. The Council stopped about an hour after Vice-President Gimondi left, when those present realized that the live text was being broadcast online;
- It should be noted that, in the course of 2022, the level of sponsorships received by the FCI increased by approximately 1,1 million cash and the main sponsor space on the Blue Jersey was released;
- To date, no commission has been paid for sponsorships;
- The recognition of commissions to intermediaries is a commercial practice and has already occurred in the past within the Federation itself;
- No immediate response was given to the issues raised by the media because the President and the Secretary General deemed it necessary to reconstruct the exact sequence of events and first inform the Federal Council and the Regional Presidents, scheduling meetings on 26 and 27 August;
- The live broadcast, without any authorization, of a Federal Council is a serious event, which perhaps has not been given adequate importance; it integrates crimes as well as violating sporting regulations and ethical and moral aspects. The Federation has decided to protect its rights before the competent authorities;
- The Federation believes that no irregularities have been committed.
For the Federation it is important to highlight significant elements for the movement and in particular:
- The 2021 financial statements closed with a positive balance of approximately € 1,1 million, which led to an increase in the consolidated federal assets to approximately € 6,4 million. Resources that have been made available to the movement with investments for the activity in structures and capital goods at central and peripheral level.
- To date, when there are still several events to be played, the total number of medals won by the Nationals of the Italian Cycling Federation in the current year, between European and World Championships, has reached the figure of 95. When there are still important events such as the Road World Championships and Track World Championships, there is concrete hope that within the year the record figure of 97 medals of 2021 will be exceeded.
The Federation believes that attention should be paid to the many successes achieved in recent months by our national teams which, for how they are organized, for the working model and also thanks to the allocations made possible by the new resources, have become an important point of reference. international.
We hope that we will come back to talk about cycling and to rejoice all together in the success of the Blue Jersey.
