Date: 17/4/13
A message from David Massitti, President of “Federazione Italia Rugby Football Leagueâ€
It ‘s time for certainty, it is time to abandon compromise, metaphors, futile political exercises that do not reflect the ethics of our beloved sport Rugby.
We have received many proposals in recent years. Like that of six months ago – to bring together the movement in a single Italian Rugby League Federation. But we also have tangible evidence of attempts, so far in vain, but clumsy attempts to break the rules. Some clubs have been “invited” to take part in a vote in order to attain a desired outcome. We are fully aware of this and provide detailed documentation in the appropriate venues when and if need be. Before doing this, however, we want to make clear.
The peculiarity of the statute was that Italy would be divided into four main committees regardless of the number of members or affiliated clubs, the first major anomaly. Second, the vote for the Italian President would include votes from three foreign committees (French, English and Australian).
During this Key period we are in the process of recognition with CONI, so we requested an opinion from their offices. The answer was immediate: “One such statute is not democratic and will never be accepted by CONI.”
What we want to emphasize strongly is that we, the Federazione Italia Rugby Football League, we have formulated our proposal according to the information provided to us by CONI. A proposal based on democracy, in which eight clubs would be invited along with our 56 clubs to go to vote. But at the moment we have not had any response.
We feel so protected by the fact that CONI is the only body that can express the “democracy” that we would like to support. We are surprised, however, that social networks are used to convince club’s to affiliate with FIRL. We can not tolerate attempts though half-heartedly, to take possession of our work posting some strange ad on Facebook.
We agree that competition can be good to the movement. The competition that teaches our sport, based on loyalty.
We regret that the Italian national team at the World cup has its home in Australia, an Australian president, a movement that does not exist in Italy. So: what are we saying about Italian expression?
We know, however, that the Italian-Australian community is an important part of the movement and we ourselves would be grateful of their knowledge.
In the meantime, we will be present at eight (8!) FIRL League matches in Italy watching a federation not entitled to this definition. We will document the work produced in the area. Since no one has done so far. Perhaps because there was nothing to be documented. Perhaps because there was never anything to be documented.
But we are people of Rugby. So we are always open to the possibility of a democratic union, not an unfair one.
And we are convinced that if the European Federation which unfortunately prevents foreign national teams to compete with us, assesses our good intentions and allows games to be played that will only help to advance the movement.
Our regret is linked to utter incomprehension of the reasons that prevent European federations to interact with our development of the game in his country with commitment, self-financing, with the heart and passion for sport. Our hope is that the intent of these federations is beyond what appear to be only mere economic interests. Our hope and our belief is that the purpose of these associations is not far from the sporting spirit that we bring in and that will make us achieve the success we are aiming: athletes motivated, athletes who run towards a common goal.
Our paths coincide, we are sure, will show only when all the passion that we have for this sport.
For this we thank our club – our athletes-many – many – and all the personalities of the sports world, economic and political support who support our projects.
