May 18 – Six months after federation president Carlo Tavecchio was banned for his notorious “banana eaters” comments when referring to African footballers, Italian football has been plunged into fresh embarrassment with another less than savoury verbal faux pas.
This time, the president of the Italian Amateur Football Association (LND), Felice Belloli, is the man at the centre of claims he described women players as “a bunch of lesbians”.
Belloli’s use of language is reportedly included in the minutes of a meeting of the LND’s women’s football advisory panel back in March.
Belloli, responsible for the women’s game in Italy, is alleged to have remarked: “That’s enough, we can’t go on always talking about giving money to this bunch of lesbians.”
State prosecutors are investigating Belloli’s remarks though he has protested his innocence.
“I never signed those minutes,” Belloli told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Can you see my signature on them? No, and I can tell you why – because minutes can be taken and amended by anybody. I know how the minutes are taken at the LND.
“All I am saying is that I did not utter that phrase. There is going to be a lot to clarify, such as how minutes taken at an LND meeting can have been distributed to the press. This is my main concern because I want to find out how that document, which is private and confidential to the LND, came out.”
However, Sonia Pessotto, a former player and a member of the council that looks after women’s football for the Italian FA (FIGC), said she was at the meeting and that Belloli had used the term.
“I was there and he did use the phrase ‘bunch of lesbians’. Now he has to resign from his position as the president of the amateur football association.”
Ironically Belloli succeeded Tavecchio at the LND when the latter took charge of the Italian FA. “If Belloli said these words then it is a serious matter. It is an odious and unacceptable phrase,” Tavecchio, who was banned for six months in November, was quoted as saying.
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