May 20 – Italy’s women’s cup final has been cancelled as a result of the alleged description of female players as a “bunch of lesbians” by the president of the Italian Amateur Football Association (LND), Felice Belloli (pictured).
Belloli has strongly denied making the remark but the issue has become so sensitive that Saturday’s fixture between Brescia and Tavagnacco has been called off.
There have been protests at women’s matches since the alleged comments were first reported and Luisa Rizzitelli, president of Italy’s national association for female athletes, said: “To be honest I thought it was a joke but when we realised it wasn’t a joke we immediately wrote to the federation to ask for an immediate investigation.
“It’s hugely damaging. We have a women’s football movement with 11,000 athletes in Italy, you can imagine we have one million playing men’s football.
“All the players have said to the federation that they don’t want to play the final, so now the game is not going ahead. If he (Belloli) resigns the game could still be played.”
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 and the Italian FA has opened an investigation.
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