Overview
- The CONI Giunta voted unanimously on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 to commissarize the Italian Football Federation and named Giovanni Malagò as the interim commissioner, with the decision forwarded to the CONI Consiglio Nazionale for ratification.
- The measure responds to a finding that Malagò was not a tesserato of the FIGC when he ran in the June election, a formal breach that triggered rival legal opinions on whether that error alone justified commissariamento.
- CONI president Luciano Buonfiglio offered the solution of naming Malagò commissioner to avoid a fractious defeat in the Giunta and a damaging institutional split, a compromise that critics say preserves Malagò’s control while meeting CONI’s formal demand to repeat the vote.
- The commissioner must call new FIGC elections within the statutory 60–90 day window, with reports setting a deadline by January 31, 2027, and the outcome is likely to prompt judicial appeals and renewed scrutiny from UEFA and FIFA over sporting autonomy.
- The episode highlights entrenched governance and conflict‑of‑interest tensions inside CONI and FIGC, it drew public backing from Serie A for Malagò, and it underscores how a technical rule can trigger wide political and institutional consequences for Italian sport.