“The people, their expertise and their passion made the difference”. With these words, spoken in Trento on the occasion of the second edition of the Sport Festival, IOC member Octavian Morariu paid homage to the candidacy of Milano Cortina 2026, emerged victorious last July from the final clash with Stockholm. A triumph that up until a few hours after the assignment seemed to hang in the balance, as the president of Coni Giovanni Malagò himself admitted: “The last few hours were decisive. Sweden had a strong bid and was applying for the Winter Olympics for the eighth time, never having won. They immediately played their best cards, while we recovered in the afternoon, presenting the best video we had and making room for our young athletes Sofia Goggia and Michela Moioli, trying to be as natural as possible. We improvised and it paid off: if we hadn't got the Games, I would have taken a step back".
Morariu confirmed the version of the president of Coni, recalling that “the two candidacies were comparable in many respects, but it was the people who made the difference. We found in the Italian delegation a team of excellent professionals, experienced and with a great ability to work competently. The unity of purpose between athletes, organizers, politicians and local administrators was decisive. And it's true: in the morning's closed-door presentation, Stockholm fared better. In the afternoon session all your passion came out".
Compliments received from the International Olympic Committee, which will contribute three quarters to the organizational costs of an edition that promises to be particularly low cost, also because it is divided between two Regions (the cost for Italy should be 300-400 million euros , with an impact on the territory of 25.000-30.000 jobs), However, Malagò now has to face internal poisons. In fact, the president of Coni in Trento glossed over the controversy that has been flaring up in recent days, after the Minister of Sport Vincenzo Spadafora (M5S) raised the case on the appointment of the future CEO of the nascent Organizing Committee of the Milan Cortina 2026 Games.
Spadafora complained that he was unaware of the existence of a formal assignment conferred on the US head hunting company Spencer Stuart: a circumstance that if true would be scandalous, given that the manager's fee will in fact be paid with public money and not a few , given that the informal agreement agreed between Sport and Health (the company controlled by the Mef which replaced Coni Servizi after the Giorgetti reform) and Spencer Stuart provides for the recognition of 10 thousand euros + VAT, but above all 30% of the salary of the Appointed CEO, who will receive around half a million gross. In short, an economic commitment of 150 thousand euros in all, currently entrusted without a tender.
There was no lack of controversy over the manager's name either: CONI handed the minister a definitive short list of three names, to which, however, a fourth was added out of time, that of Stefano Domenicali, former Ferrari manager, now president and CEO of Lamborghini, a personal friend of Malagò and also greatly appreciated by the mayor of Milan Beppe Sala. While waiting to dispel the doubts about this crucial appointment, it should be noted that the Olympic adventure of Milan and Cortina has not yet officially started but has already been marred - after the initial enthusiasm and the optimism still flaunted in Trento - by a first wave of mysteries and poisons. Just a few weeks ago, among other things, the scandal of the letters sent by Malagò to the Cio to ask to punish Italy and stop the Sport reform.
