The Italian Cycling Federation is facing cuts to its successful track programme and higher licence and race fees after debt of 2.7 million Euro – a fifth of the annual budget – was discovered by external auditors, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reports.
The Italian national team's victories include Elia Viviani's gold medal in the Omnium at the Olympic Games in Brazil last year. This season the team won several medals on the track at the recent European Championships and on the road at the World Championships in Bergen. However, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) has forced Italian Federation President and UCI Vice-President Renato di Rocco to impose cuts and increase fees to cover the debt, describing cycling's financial position as 'the worst, along with that of equestrian sport, in the whole Italian sports system.'
"The official auditors moved part of the budget and called for immediate refinancing. Under the Italian civil code we could act differently but the Italian Olympic Committee won't listen to us," Di Rocco explained to Corriere della Sera.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We'll activate an business plan to reduce the debt but they will have to help us, as they've done with other Federations."
Corriere della Sera suggested that the CONI has asked the Cycling Federation to freeze the funding of its track team. An Italian squad of 16 riders is due to compete in the UCI World Cup in Poland at the weekend, with others expected to compete in Manchester on November 10-12. However, the 2018 budget is at risk.
The Italian Cycling Federation has 82 full-time staff and over 100,000 licence holders but it is almost totally state funded via the CONI. Most gran fondo events are organised by other non-Olympic Federations and the Federation does little to promote non-competitive cycling.
Political woes for Vicenza's World Championship bid
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2ym8VWp
No comments:
Post a Comment