Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1302895
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 OCTOBER 2020 NEWS KARL AZZOPARDI THE government has to make clearer the process for sports commercialisation pro- jects, entrepreneur Diane Izzo has said in the wake of the resignation of Floriana F.C. president Riccardo Gaucci. The Italian businessman resigned his post last week, despite having clinched the premiership title in 2020, citing the club's failure to progress into their European campaign, but also the excessive bureau- cracy surrounding the commercialisation of sports facilities. "The main reason is the fact that the club's proposed project has stalled for sev- eral months now, despite the fact that the club has done everything it could so that it would be given the green light by the au- thorities," Gaucci said in a club broadcast on Facebook. He said the commercialisation of the club's facilities at the Independence are- na, also known as ix-Xagħra tal-Floriana, would have helped to raise standards in the sport while providing funds for better reinvestment in the club. Izzo, the owner of fashion retail power- house DIZZ group, is the sole owner of D Arena Mall Ltd, which acquired the com- pany MIG Trade which Gaucci had set up together with Italian businessmen Ciro Iacone and Riccardo Migliosi for the Flo- riana commercialisation project. "He might have been a bit brash... but he is factually right," Izzo said of Gaucci's rea- sons for stepping down. "Government is- sued a law, but never gave clear guidelines on how the process will work. They told us about their plans two years ago, but things never panned out," she said. Izzo, whose company has also latched on to the Sliema Wanderers F.C. commer- cialisation plan in Tigné to develop a mall there, said many more clubs were facing the same problem. "The process involves a lot of agreements with different sectors, and so when these agreements don't work out, it is all for nothing... we feel betrayed, we were prom- ised something different," she said. Izzo is not involved in the Floriana club's administration, but she has been one of the club's sponsors for just over two years. "I'm just a sponsor. Of course, we help a lot, but in terms of applying for the per- mits and the land, that is all in the hands of Floriana. We are not involved in that pro- cess," she said. "Of course as business-people we have an endgame," she said of her investment in Floriana, a one-time eternal rival to Sliema Wanderers. "Ultimately it is the sport which benefits because they have secure income and can reach new levels." Parliamentary secretary for sports Clifton Grima claimed he was against any exces- sive bureaucracy, but said the regulations were safeguarding the sport. "A number of clubs had forwarded proposals which have been too bombastic for implementation," he said, specifying that he was not refer- ring to the Floriana proposal. "Several clubs have come to us with ex- cessive proposals, and these will just not fly. There must be a balance... commer- cialisation should always serve the sport," Grima said. Comparing Malta's situation with other countries, Clifton Grima cited an example from Italy where only a handful of clubs, like Juventus and Atalanta, had been re- cently given full control over training premises, land and stadiums. Grima said the commercialisation pro- jects will start coming into action in the coming days. "Clubs need to do what is right, and that is prioritising the sport. On- ly then can the level start to climb." 'Sports commercialisation process must be made clearer' Floriana club sponsor Diane Izzo says government has never given clubs clear guidelines on the process to commercialise their football grounds pean Council's legal services said the convention contains some "shared competences", and there- fore required unanimity from EU member states. Büchel claims member states "appear to be annoyed" by Mal- ta's blocking of the Convention but none of them have challenged the EU Council's legal opinion. Only Portugal, Italy and Greece have ratified the treaty without waiting for the go-ahead of the EU Council. "As far as I am aware, a grow- ing number of governments are considering bypassing the EU Council decision and ratifying the Convention," Büchel claimed in his report. "Malta should stop seeking new legal nuances and sincerely aim at joining the Con- vention to defend its positions as a fully-fledged member, from within the follow-up committee." The Maltese government says the Council of Europe's parlia- mentary assembly has recognised its efforts in legislating against sports corruption, with an au- thority that will deal with an- ti-doping, anti-match fixing, leg- islation and investigation. But it wants to steer clear from the regulation of a non-harmo- nised sector. "Malta has always claimed that the only reason for not signing the Macolin Con- vention is the definition of illegal sports betting," the government said, reacting to Büchel's report. "There is no accepted defini- tion of what constitutes 'illegal gambling', or 'illegal sports bet- ting' within EU or international law. Every state is free and du- ty-bound to define and regulate gambling in the best interests of its citizens... Malta was always concerned that once a Conven- tion on match-fixing includes a gambling definition, it will pave the way for regulation of non-har- monised sectors by virtue of legal instruments intended to regulate a separate sector altogether." The government insists that its Prevention of Corruption in Sports Act includes the entire content of the Convention, ex- cluding the definition on "illegal sports betting", which means it can fulfil its duties as a member of the Council of Europe, without signing the Convention itself. The Malta Gaming Authority's own Sports Integrity Unit, which gathers intelligence on suspicious betting has received over 200 re- ports of suspicious betting since its setting up. As a result, the unit was directly participant to more than 20 different investigations since the Unit's formation in 2019. Sponsorship plans: Diane Izzo (right) struck up a partnership with Floriana F.C. through D Arena Mall, a company that bought into an Italian business concern that Floriana F.C. president Riccardo Gaucci (left) first step as part of a sports commercialisation project for the Independence Arena