Excited Italy gets to work on World Cup finals

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 34

Excited Italy gets to work on World Cup finals

NZPA-Reuter Rome

In Italy, when the Subject is football, nobody agrees.

So spoke Luca di Montezemolo, the slim and smart-suited extrovert in charge of organising the 1990 World Cup soccer finals.

In a country renowned for political instability, rows about money and a tendency to put off until tomorrow what could be done today, his is an unenviable task. But with less than 16 months to go until the opening match in Milan on June 8, 1990, Mr Montezemolo thinks Italy will be ready ... more or less.

“If I had to bet, it would depend on what you mean by having everything ready,” he said. H l’ll say just one thing. I am convinced that at the last minute Italy will present itself in the best conditions to host this event”

Since this soccer-crazy nation was awarded the finals in 1984, the way to 1990 has been paved with

problems for Mr Montezemolo and his 120 staff on the Italia 1990 organising committee. “Moving on from intentions and plans to making them come true is always complicated in this country,” said Mr Montezemolo. “Above all, it does not fit in very well with meeting deadlines. But the World Cup is not an event that can be put off until a later date.”

Mr Montezemolo, aged 41, was made general manager of the organising committe thanks to his impressive record in public relations in sport, spectacle and big business, three areas vital to the World Cup’s success. He has been dubbed Italy’s VIP of public relations since moving into those worlds after earning top degrees in law in Rome and at Columbia University, New York.

He was assistant to the late Enzo Ferrari and was racing director of Ferrari in 1975, the year Niki Lauda won his first Formula One world

driver’s title with the team.

From Ferrari, he moved to motor giant Fiat, Italy’s biggest private company, with ultimate control over all publishing activities. He has also been involved in Italy’s America’s Cup yacht race consortium Azurra and was managing director of drinks concern Cinzano International before taking over management of the World Cup organisation. The change brought Mr Montezemolo out of the private sector largely responsible for Italy’s economic success and into the more complicated public sector of merry-go-round governments and bureaucratic impasses. “Sometimes, especially in the past few months, I have asked myself if I would ever have accepted this job if I had the chance to go back in time,” he said. “When I travel by plane, I am never happy because I know I am in

someone else’s hands. I prefer to travel by car because I know then that I’m driving. “We try to do our best, but often the best doesn’t depend on us. That said ... the experience of dealing with the public sector is essential if you want to operate in the real Italy.” F.1.F.A., soccer’s world governing body, at one stage warned Italy it could lose the finals altogether because of political rows that had halted the construction of a broadcasting centre to beam the month-long finals to 1.5 billion viewers.

Five billion dollars (SNZB billion) earmarked to improve transport and communications in the 12 cities that will host the 52 matches have been cut to SUS2.S billion (SNZ4 billion) in a row over government spending.

Of the 12 stadiums, two — in Turin and Bari — are being built from scratch, Genoa is still having problems with de-

signs to convert its grandstand and more work has just been ordered on Rome’s Olympic Stadium, venue for the final on July 8.

Add to these setbacks the regularity with which the local mayors change in Italy’s turbulent political climate and the size of Montezemolo’s problems becomes clear.

Not all the problems are the organising committee’s, however, and Mr Montezemolo has said he will take responsibility only for the smooth running of the 24team tournament itself. The rest is down to national and local government, he said.

But Mr Montezemolo believes the stadiums will be ready and the finals will start on time.

Few would disagree with him particularly as two of the things closest to Italian hearts will be at stake — “calcio” and “bella figura,” the art of looking good to the rest of the world.