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Italian Women’s Cup Final Cancelled After Lesbian Comments from Official

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The Italian women’s cup final has been called off as a result of alleged comments by Felice Belloli, the president of the county’s amateur football association, referring to female players as a “bunch of lesbians”.

Patrizia-Panico-01

Brescia were due to play Tavagnacco last weekend, but the match has been scrapped, the association representing female players and coaches, has confirmed.

Also read: Homophobia in Sports: When Poor Sportsmanship Becomes a Problem

Belloli allegedly made the comments when discussing funding for women’s football in Italy. At a meeting of the Lega Nazionale Dilettanti he is alleged to have said:

That’s enough, we can’t always talk about giving money to this bunch of lesbians.”

Belloli was quick to deny making the comments, making a statement to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

I never signed those minutesCan you see my signature on them? No, and I can tell you why – because minutes can be taken and amended by anybody. I know how the minutes are taken at the LND. All I am saying is that I did not utter that phrase.”

Patrizia Panico, the veteran Verona and Italy forward, said that if the comments were accurate then they were “sexist, male chauvinist and ignorant”.

Luisa Rizzitelli, president of Italy’s national association for female athletes, said:

To be honest I thought it was a joke but when we realised it wasn’t a joke we immediately wrote to the federation to ask for an immediate investigation. It’s hugely damaging. We have a women’s football movement with 11,000 athletes in Italy, you can imagine we have one million playing men’s football. All the players have said to the federation that they don’t want to play the final, so now the game is not going ahead. If he (Belloli) resigns the game could still be played.”

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