Italy's Olympic boss warns of sanctions

“We can still find a solution by Wednesday. There is still time,” said Giovanni Malago, president of Italy’s Olympic committee CONI, at a parliamentary hearing. A meeting of the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will take place on Wednesday. The background is a change in the law in Italy. With the establishment of “Sport e Salute” (Sport and Health), a new administrative unit, a competitor to the CONI was created, which, at the government's request, is intended to take over personnel and competencies and could at some point make it superfluous. No anthem and flag in Tokyo? The daily newspaper La Repubblica had reported on Monday that the IOC would decide to ban Italy's anthem and flag in Tokyo. The IOC did not initially respond to a query about this. IOC President Thomas Bach had already expressed “very concern about the situation and the functioning of the CONI” in September. Italy is an important partner of the IOC and is about to take part in its 23th Olympic Games at the Tokyo Games (July 8 to August 28), which have been postponed by a year due to the corona pandemic. The Winter Olympics will also take place in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in 2026. La Repubblica sees damage to the country's image. “The abandonment of the flag and anthem is a grave humiliation for Italy, which is put on a par with countries like Lukashenko's Belarus and the Russia of doping scandals,” the paper commented. The IOC decision threatens to have negative effects on the Winter Games in Milan-Cortina in 2026.

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Italy's Olympic boss warns of sanctions

In the dispute over the Italian government's influence on sport, the country's Olympic boss has once again urgently warned of possible sanctions at the Summer Games in Tokyo.

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