Futsal and politics, the intertwining between the Division and the Brothers of Italy ended up at the center of the investigation

Soccer and politics. To be precise, the Soccer Division 5, until a few months ago led by Andrea Montemurro, e Brothers from Italy. There is a thread that links the most popular amateur sport in the country with the festival of Giorgia Meloni: part of the recognized closeness of the former president to the Fdi environments, but then it extends to the activities of the organization, so much that it ends up in exposed and research. First of all for cash flows with Ops, promotion body, the sports branch of the party, which together with the Division organized a social project that ended up in the sights of the control bodies. There are also other precedents: the link with Giovanbattista Fazzolari, now senator of the Brothers of Italy, in the past collaborator of the Division. And then the chat training courses Link Campus University, where former President Montemurro taught.

THE PROJECT WITH OPOS AND THOSE MONEY FLOWS – The story is contained in a report, signed by the control body and taken to the Public Ministry by the former commissioner. Caridi, appointed by the Amateur League precisely to bring order to the past administration (before the FederCalcio decided to cancel the notary and relocating the board of directors, a controversial ruling that has created quite a bit of turmoil in soccer stadiums.) It is about the work of Montemurro, president from the end of 2016 until last May, already finished to the “honors” of the news for the so-called “Sexgate” football. The content told the newspaper The Republic: in the sights there are triangulations of money with the Organization for Education in Sports, a sports promotion body with more than 450 thousand members, very close to Fdi (its former president, Marco Perissa, came from “National Youth”, the youth of the party).

In 2018, Opes promoted a project on gender equality called “In a different but equal field”, for which it receives funding from 125 thousand euros by the Department of Equal Opportunities. To achieve this, an ad hoc association is created with other entities, including the Futsal Division, which is entitled to a participation of 40 thousand euros. Except that – argues Republic – Part of this money seems to go back to Opes paid as invoices, or to former President Perissa, or to companies attributable to the Organization’s top management. Of course, it is not uncommon for a sports promotion body recognized by Coni to collaborate with sports federations or leagues. And in the project it was specified that the realization would be implemented by those subjects. However, the route did not seem clear to the supervisory bodies themselves.

COLLABORATION WITH THE (FUTURE) FDI SENATOR – On the other hand, the link with the Brothers of Italy, established under the direction of Montemurro, is evident. Ilfattoquotidiano.it you can add two other unreleased items. The first has a first and last name: Giovanbattista Fazzolari, former head of Giorgia Meloni’s technical secretariat when she was Minister of Youth, formerly her legal advisor, today a senator and strategist for the Fdi. A great friend of Montemurro, before joining Parliament, he was also on the payroll of the futsal division: a few thousand euros, small reimbursements for helping the former president in the initial phase of his administration. His name, along with others, ended in a statement that accused Montemurro of having violated spending autonomy limits (which has a limit of 20 thousand euros) in the signing of some contracts, a matter for which the former president had gotten away with negotiating afine of 4 thousand euros.

COURSES AT THE LINK UNIVERSITY POLITICAL SCHOOL – In short, at the time of Montemurro, the Division also seems to have approached the political acquaintances of its president. And the plot reaches the Link Campus, a private university that has been talked about so much recently for its links with politics and for the research of “Easy exams” which led to the indictment of 69 people. What does college have to do with football? the Fatto.it is in possession of an email sent from the mailbox of Paola Brienza, academic director of Policeman, School of political formation of Link, and directed to the Division of Futsal. We are in November 2017: the director thanks the president for “having renewed (term that suggests that it also existed the previous year, ed.) the participation of the Division in the collaboration of consultation and development of the school ”, and also“ for the purchase of some courses to choose within the training offer ”(value 2,000 euros, complete with IBAN coordinates for the transfer). Except that Montemurro himself was a professor in one of the school’s courses on “Fundraising for politics.” In a copy of that email was also Fazzolari, who today Madama Palace defends his old friend: “Someone wanted to paint an elusive and non-existent relationship between the Futsal Division and the Brothers of Italy, based on a simple political closeness that has been criminalized. Unfortunately in this country, having right-wing sympathies is still a fault ”.

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