According to Italian media outlet Calcio e Finanza, new developments have emerged in the controversy surrounding Giovanni Malagò's election as president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). The Joint Chambers of the Federal Court of Appeal of the Italian Football Federation rejected the appeal filed by lawyer Renato Miele. However, this ruling does not mean that the issue of Malagò not having completed his FIGC registration at the time of his candidacy has been finally resolved.
Miele had previously appealed against the decision made by the National Federal Court of the Italian Football Federation. The National Federal Court had dismissed his objections to the results of the FIGC presidential election on June 22.
Miele challenged not only the resolution electing Malagò as FIGC president but also raised objections to related pre- and post-election documents in the electoral process, including the minutes of the eligibility committee meetings, the candidates' eligibility determinations, and the refusal to grant him access to documents related to Malagò's candidacy.
The Court of Appeal has now rejected Miele's appeal. This means that, at least in this specific FIGC judicial procedure, the result of Malagò's election as FIGC president on June 22 remains valid.
The legal dispute between Miele and this election began even before the vote. In June, the Federal Court of Appeal had rejected his appeals regarding his own disqualification from running and the approval of Malagò and Giancarlo Abete as candidates.
At that time, Miele had explicitly raised the issue of Malagò not having completed his FIGC registration when submitting his candidacy application, citing Article 29 of the FIGC Statutes.
However, the crucial question now is what impact this ruling will have on the recently renewed controversy surrounding Malagò's incomplete FIGC registration at the time of his candidacy. This is not entirely the same legal procedure as appeals against the electoral process itself.
The rejection of Miele's appeal is undoubtedly a favorable outcome for Malagò in addressing questions about the legitimacy of the electoral process, but it does not necessarily mean that the judiciary has made a final ruling on how the registration eligibility requirements should be interpreted.
In the relevant proceedings in June, the Federal Court of Appeal did not rule on the merits of whether Malagò was ineligible due to incomplete registration.
Instead, the court held that since Miele himself was not approved as a candidate, he lacked the legal standing and legal interest required to challenge the eligibility of other candidates. For this reason, the question of whether Malagò was ineligible was deemed not to require further substantive review.
Meanwhile, the investigation launched by the Italian Football Federation's Federal Prosecutor's Office into Malagò's registration remains an independent process and has not yet concluded.
According to preliminary investigation findings, relevant checks confirmed that Malagò had not completed his Italian Football Federation registration when submitting his candidacy application. However, Federal Prosecutor Giuseppe Chinè previously requested that the case be closed based on his interpretation of the FIGC statutes.
According to this interpretation, the phrase "registration eligibility is in compliance with regulations" in the statutes does not necessarily mean that a candidate must actually possess FIGC registration on the day of application submission. Rather, it requires that individuals who already hold FIGC registration meet the relevant registration requirements. This view also cited previous cases involving other FIGC officials as precedent.
However, the General Prosecutor for Sport of the Italian Olympic Committee, led by Ugo Taucer, did not accept Chinè's request to close the case and instead asked him for further clarification.
Therefore, the investigation into Malagò's registration eligibility is currently ongoing and will proceed independently of Miele's appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal.
This ruling helps maintain the stability of the Italian Football Federation's current management structure, but it cannot yet be considered the final conclusion of the "Malagò unregistered candidacy" controversy. Whether it will further affect his presidency will depend on the subsequent progress of the proceedings by the Italian Olympic Committee's sports justice bodies.
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