“The change in the regulations on foreigners in the roller hockey tournament was not decided by the FISR Council.” A sentence, said by Cristina Marabese, an advisor to the Institute itself, here is the scenario identified by an article in The Citizen on February 17 as taking a potentially more troubling risk. Yes, our newspaper smelled burning, but he didn’t think he was in such a serious situation. Therefore, not only was the rule about the number of foreign players to be deployed to Serie A1 changed, contrary to the basic principle that the rules of the game could not be changed while the competition was in progress; Not just retroactively; But it so happened that even a communication made to the companies contained an inaccuracy, that it was the Federal Council that created the differences. this is not true. This is dangerous. This was denounced by one of the nine directors of Fisr himself, who now backs up our article from last month with his “exactly identical” version of the facts, as he wants to point out. And to do so he chose “The Citizen”, evidently Italy’s most authoritative voice for the sport, and perhaps the only restless voice.

Reconstructing the facts is not short, but necessary. At the beginning of February, due to force majeure (player injury), it was discovered that in the Viareggio-Vercelli match, the away team had fielded three citizens out of nine players (instead of the usual ten) in the score sheet. foreign. However, the current regulation requires that a team must field at least seventy percent of its Italian-trained athletes. It goes without saying that three out of ten foreigners are thirty percent, while three out of nine are not. Vercelli will therefore not comply with Article 7.4 of the regulation and the penalty will impose a 10-0 forfeit on the table, plus a penalty point for the first offense, two for the second and up to ten from the fifth onwards. By scrutinizing the match reports, the “Citizen” discovered that the Vercelli match in Viareggio was not the only offense in this tournament. On the first day Vercelli himself sent out three of the nine foreigners in Grosseto. Even Valdagno made the same “mistake” on the sixth day in Montebello. Even four non-standard matches for leader Trissino: with Montecchio on the first day, with Monza on the second, with Forte dei Marmi on the third and with Sarzana on the thirteenth. According to the regulations in place at the start of the season, the Italian champions must have four defeats on the table (compared to four victories on the track) and up to 15 penalty points, which would take them from their current 59 points. to 32, up to all 8th place in Serie A1. Since all matches relate to the first round, the order in which the eight teams qualify for the Italian Cup would have undergone dramatic changes. The problem is that the quarter-final matches with the pairs decided by this arrangement have already been played and Trisino (who then won the cup in the final against Amatori Lodi) won qualification to the “Final 4”, moreover, it was organized home run as the record holder. from the regular season. What do I do? Simple: on February 9, five days after the Viareggio-Vercelli match, the same technical sector sent an email to the roller hockey clubs announcing that on January 26 the Federal Council (so before the match in question) decided to amend the regulations in running: no longer seventy percent of Italians, but a maximum of three foreigners on a separate basis, as is now done online in Article 7.4 of the Activity Rules. Apart from some quiet voices and a letter from the companies’ association addressed to President Araku and the councilors, in reality the A1 clubs did not protest much. Then “citizen” came to refer to the infraction.

It has now turned out to be more serious. Not only was the regulation changed during the competition, but even the Federal Council had not taken a decision on such a change as clubs were informed instead. This was stated by Cristina Marabese, one of the nine directors in charge of the institute. Born in Ferrara in 1966, Marabes is the president of an inline hockey company and was elected to the board of directors in 2017. “The notification to companies of a change in regulation has not been approved by the Federal Council on January 26 – Marabes frankly states in his exclusive interview with ‘The Citizen’ -. I have informed the entire Federal Council and decided to inform the violation of sports justice, which has its course and time. Marabis continues, without a doubt, “Is my denunciation the right way? I think so, transparency is due, the rest is up to me. In this case as a Federalist Councilman I feel personally exploited but above all I believe the whole Council’s role in fellowship has been violated. The credibility of the entire movement and the federation itself depends on it.”

What happened? Was it wrong? unprecision? liar? In all honesty, we do not believe in bad faith. Perhaps the technical sector that signed the clubs email only realized in the middle of the tournament that they had not checked every match report, so they could not discover the irregularities. At that point he had two options: admit the mistake or try to overturn everything by changing the standard, which he did. Readers of The Citizen will judge, we hope, the competent bodies of the Institute itself and, perhaps in a second degree, those of al-Koni. And if everything is confirmed, it will inevitably lead to consequences at the highest levels. But there is no doubt, bearing in mind that in the minutes of the board meeting on January 26 (found online on the Fisr website) there is no mention of changing the regulations, while there is talk of championship assignments, appointments and memberships. In short, a “normal” council, not a council where important decisions are made.

As further evidence of a little “lightness” in running the federation, Chancellor Marabis concluded with another complaint of irregularities: “The registration procedure of some inline hockey clubs appears to be marred by the irregular payment of federal taxes, a fact that would have had to impose penalties in the arrangement and in Some cases, even earlier, exclusion from the tournament. The federal judicial bodies, which were already informed some time ago, will deal with this matter in a timely manner and in a manner ».

What will happen now? Will the already customized Coppa Italia full version be cancelled? Will the companies that made a mistake be punished, with a direct result on the grid for the upcoming Scudetto qualifiers? Or will they pretend that nothing has happened and that the two main national competitions (as well as the qualifiers for the upcoming European Cups) will be judged correctly for the regulations in place now (but who decided that?) and not for the championship at the start of the season? And what will happen to the person who sent this email that contains information that does not correspond to the truth? It is likely that the “citizen” will provide the answers.