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The IOC had threatened to ban the Italian flag
and anthem at this year's Tokyo Olympics over a draft Italian
sports law that hands power over sports funding to a
government-run body instead of to CONI, the national Olympic
committee.
The cabinet approved a decree on Tuesday morning securing CONI's
autonomy with a string of what it called "urgent measures
regarding the organisation and functioning of CONI."
"In order to ensure the full operation of the Italian National
Olympic Committee and its autonomy and independence as a member
of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the text gives
CONI its own organic endowment of personnel, including
management," the government said.
CONI chief Giovanni Malago has contacted the IOC, of which he is
a member, to inform it of the news.
The IOC Executive Board is due to meet on Wednesday, and
sanctions on Italy had been on the agenda aside from a raft of
Tokyo Olympics-related matters.
The IOC is allergic to any kind of government involvement in
sports affairs, even at the national level, saying that sports
should be independent of any government influence.
Italy is set to host the 2026 winter Olympics and any sanction
ahead of Tokyo would have been a major embarrassment.
It is not unusual for the IOC to threaten or impose sanctions on
countries over government interference, as has been the case in
recent years with India, Kuwait and Ghana among others.
Russia is currently banned from flying its flag or having its
anthem played at the Tokyo Games, and its athletes will compete
as neutrals in the wake of a doping scandal that has hung over
the world of sport for the last five years.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Additional reporting by Giselda
Vagnoni in Rome, Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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