A scheme by Italian bishops to promote ethical values in sport by going into partnership with an Italian football team has ended in a squabble over cash. The Catholic sports organisation CSI (Centro Sportivo Italiano), which last October agreed to back the Italian third division club Ancona, complained that the club had failed to live up to its side of the bargain and fund Catholic charities in Italy and Africa.
Edio Costantini, head of CSI, said the Church's backing for Ancona had given the side global publicity even Serie A teams could only dream of, with the team presenting its strip to Pope Benediuct XVI in the Vatican. But "divorce will be inevitable unless the club opens up its purse strings,'' he said.
He said the committment to the scheme of Giampiero Schiavoni, the Ancona club chairman, had ''apparently wavered.....the club will have to accept full responsibility if the scheme collapses. Let's hope they repent. Fine words are not enough, we need money''.
The club replied that it was the CSI which had reneged on the deal by failing to provide a promised million Euros in sponsorship. Mr Schiavoni told La Stampa the Church accusations had been "a bolt from the blue. We expected quite different behaviour from a Catholic institution."
He said it was "ridiculous that an attempt to inject moral values into sport has ended in a quarrel about money". However the original concept "was and is a very good one".
The Vatican said it approved of the attempt to inject Christian values into football, but was not directly involved in the Ancona project. Under the deal the club and its players pledged to do good works ''in remission of sins on the field''.
However Ancona's fans, who are mostly left-wing, objected to the deal from the start as a further example of unwarranted Church "interference" in Italian life.
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