Gianluca Rocchi suspends himself as referee designator

Gianluca Rocchi announced to Ansa his immediate self-suspension from the role of CAN head: “A choice shared with the Aia and taken for the good of the CAN group, which must be able to work with the utmost serenity.”

“This choice, suffered, difficult but shared with my family,” explained the referee designator, “wants to allow a proper course of the judicial phase, from which I am sure I will come out unscathed and stronger than before.

“The great love for my association and the sense of responsibility for the role I hold,” Rocchi concluded, “lead me first and foremost to protect such an important group of athletes that I do not want to be conditioned in any way by my affairs, while waiting for news, which I hope as soon as possible can arrive to clarify my position.

The 52-year-old is thus leaving office a few months ahead of the natural expiration of his mandate, scheduled for June 30, in a particularly delicate phase for Italian soccer. In the background there is in fact also the renewal of the federal leadership, with the election of the new Figc president scheduled for June 22, in a context already marked by yet another phase of reconstruction after the failure to qualify for the next World Cup.