The Italian National Olympics
Committee (CONI) will be lending a hand to the 2019 Universiade
in Naples.
The international multi-sport event is often referred to in
English as the World University Games or World Student Games.
CONI will work alongside the state-owned CONI Servizi and the
commissioner to ensure that the games are held after they
initially ran up against several obstacles.
It will speed up preparations for the event, according to an
agreement signed on Friday.
"This is a great challenge," CONI Servizi managing director
Alberto Miglietta said. "That we are counting on winning. The
challenge is to the entire country and not only Naples or the
Campania region, to be ready for July 2019."
He added that "we will contribute in terms of know-how gained
by the organization over the course of many international
events. We will be on the front line as concerns the entire
organizational and practical parts of the event, bringing in
human resources and skills. We will do it."
The issue of housing the athletes will also likely be solved
soon.
Commissioner Luisa Latella noted that the Italian National
Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC) had told the public
administration not to have relations with MSC - the company it
had contacted to host the athletes onboard cruise ships that
would have been anchored in the Naples port for this purpose.
ANAC's decision was due to the lack of a "cooling-off period"
for a manager from the public sector prior to moving to the
private sector.
Having discarded the possibility of the ships, there may
instead be a village built in the Mostra d'Oltremare, which had
already been named as the headquarters of the event.
The project under assessment calls for the building of 2,500
pre-fab cabins for 7,200 athletes and authorization is expected
to come in within the next 15 days.
"This was Plan B but it has become Plan A and the only
possibility," Miglietta said.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Latella admits that there are a
number of difficulties, saying that "it is a race against time,
but the idea of a village meets the aim of this event to leave a
legacy to the place where it is held. The cabins (each of which
can hold up to three athletes) would remain at the disposal of
the area and would be distributed to the territories in need of
them."
Meanwhile, there has also been progress for works to be
carried out on 63 sports facilities across 24 municipalities of
Campania involved in the games.
"Fifty-five projects have been approved," the commissioner
said, "and in some locations work has already begun. In a few
days we will put the first stone of the Baronissi stadium, work
has begun on the Mostra pool and others will begin shortly."
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
