Gregorio Paltrinieri gives no respite to'former president Gravina

Gabriele Gravina resigned as FIGC president after Italy’s disaster, but the echo of his words in the Zeniga post-match still reverberates in the Italian sports world. A great swimming champion, Gregorio Paltrinieri, still can’t get over it and in an interview with La Repubblica he, too, wanted to comment on the former federal president’s phrase about “other amateur sports.”

“I and other colleagues of mine took it badly. It is bad to hear certain phrases about amateurism, with that tone, from someone who somehow represents Italian sport. I also read it as an attempt to discredit the work of others in order to feel a little ‘higher’,” said the Italian swimmer.

“Italian soccer in this case had to explain whether it has worked well in this four-year period, whether it had recovered from the failure of four years ago. Instead, no, it talked about something else. It seemed to me that Gravina also wanted to say that in other sports it is easier to win. Disconcerting, coming from a federation that receives more money from the state, by the way.”

Paltrinieri was also hurt by the Azzurri’s failure to qualify: “I was cheering furiously… but when you line up a bunch of bad performances, it means there is something that is not working at the general level. There is something to think about… And these statements only create divisions, but usually divisions start right from the top, they don’t start from the sportsmen. It is a polarization that was not needed, yet another one in this country.”