Buonfiglio “With me as president, Coni will be even stronger”

ROME (ITALPRESS) – “A race is not won only with the body, but also with the mind”. Luciano Buonfiglio dusts off his memories as an athlete, in view of the final sprint for the elections for the presidency of the Coni, scheduled for Thursday 26 June. A strong candidacy, that of the current number one of the Italian Canoe and Kayak Federation, openly supported by the outgoing president Giovanni Malagò. “I am not a phenomenon and I have always worked involving many people – Buonfiglio, 75 years old, a past in the National Canoe Team including participation in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, explains to Italpress – The real team to innovate and to keep up with the current situation will not only be the Board, but the entire National Council. Because there are many topics to address, and we are moving from a very strong leadership to a completely different role for CONI, so we will need to be even stronger and better than before to be proactive on topics ranging from Olympic preparation to the revision of the rules, from the centrality of the activity to a series of important appointments. Here, what will distinguish my program is that it will be done with all the components of the National Council, with more participation from below, because there is a need to give strength to people's sense of belonging. There will be 80 of us in the National Council but we represent millions of athletes, so the sense of belonging must then transform into a sense of responsibility”. Starting from this, assures Buonfiglio, former vice-president of Coni and member of the National Council, "we will propose to the competent ministers a four-year strategic plan to be implemented with the operational arm of the government, which is Sport and Health. Our skills and knowledge will ensure that all the initiatives that we would like to implement with the structures of our country will certainly be excellent, because who better than us knows the reality of the territory, with its typologies and heterogeneity? Who better than us knows the facilities that are necessary to do sports? Working in synergy with the base and the federations we will certainly have a more credible 'product'". The Neapolitan manager, who has been at the helm of Fick for twenty years, has clear ideas on the first measures to take in the event of victory: "I'm not saying the day after, but I would immediately call the Executive and National Council together to establish the timing to address the various priorities, because when you decide together then you feel part of a project. I would then immediately meet the competent ministers together with Sport and Health and I would set in motion all those initiatives to increase fundraising because the Coni needs not only the 45 million that are allocated but at least another 45 and therefore there is a need to activate private individuals, sponsors and European projects, always in a professional manner and with competent people who dedicate themselves to it". Of course, his experience as the head of Italian sport does not compromise the level reached by the Italian canoe team (“We have already built our future, all our sectors are ready to do even better because we have always worked on excellence, as well as on respect for the environment and the inclusion of vulnerable categories”), Buonfiglio illustrates the peculiarities that should characterize a president of the Coni: He must be obsessed with being up to the task of representing the entire world of sport and must dedicate himself body and soul to valorizing all the people who work there, because when even the youngest member of any discipline knows the path to follow and the goal to achieve, then we have already won. As Giulio Onesti used to say, the value of sport is not only in competition but also in education and training. This is what has guided me up to now – he concludes – and what will guide me even more strongly afterwards”. – Photo by Fick Press Office –

(ITALPRESS).