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Italian female footballers defy mafia-style threats

One of Italy's top women's indoor football teams was set to defy a mafia-style threat in the heartland of the powerful 'Ndrangheta Sunday, taking to the pitch to the rallying cries of top sports figures.

Published: 10 January 2016 18:03 CET
Italian female footballers defy mafia-style threats
Sporting Locri is a futsal team which competes in Italy's top Serie A league. Photograph: Centro Sportivo Italiano

Sporting Locri, a futsal team which competes in Italy's top Serie A league, looked set to close last month after its president received anonymous messages threatening both his toddler and the club.

Futsal is the increasingly popular brand of five-a-side indoor football.

Club President Ferdinando Armeni bowed to pressure and resigned before Christmas, but the capitulation sparked a national outcry, with the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) stepping in to insist the team must play on.

With the club now headed up temporarily by the town's mayor Giovanni Calabrese, Sporting Locri will square up to Lazio at 1700 GMT in a match broadcast live on national television and attended by FIGC president Carlo Tavecchio.

The Lazio team looked defiant Sunday as it flew in from Rome to Calabria, a region in the grip of the richest and most powerful syndicate in Europe and which in 2014 had the highest level of unemployment in Italy, at 23.4 percent.

Italy has launched a probe into the messages ordering Armeni to shut down the club, including a note left on the car-seat of his three-year-old daughter.

The former president, whose tyres were also slashed, told journalists he had no idea who was behind the threats — and brushed off press rumours that the real reason he resigned was because the club had finance problems after over-investing in players from Spain.

Top anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri, who has lived under armed guard for the past 26 years after death threats and several attempts on his life, told AFP “the team absolutely must not close its doors”.

“They not only have to keep playing but they have to be given psychological assistance because I can only imagine the stress these poor girls have been put under,” he said, adding that the team was “a source of pride for this region”.

Football is a honeypot for the mafia, which makes vast profits from match-fixing as well as using the sport as a means to recycle ill-gotten gains.

It has proved especially useful for the 'Ndrangheta, which is credited with controlling much of the world's cocaine trade.
 
In May, 50 people were arrested in a vast sting which uncovered match-rigging by the mobster syndicate at some 30 football clubs, involving football players, coaches and club owners.
 
But Gratteri, 57, interviewed at the heavily-guarded police headquarters in the southern-Italian city, said he did not believe the 'Ndrangheta was behind the Sporting Locri threats.
 
“The 'Ndrangheta is present where there's money to be had and power to be had. In this case, there's no money, no power.”
 
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OFFBEAT

Is Switzerland’s male-only mandatory military service ‘discriminatory’?

Under Swiss law, all men must serve at least one year in compulsory national service. But is this discriminatory?

Published: 7 December 2021 16:50 CET
Swiss military members walk across a road carrying guns
A new lawsuit seeks to challenge Switzerland's male-only military service requirement. Is this discriminatory? FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

All men aged between the ages of 18 and 30 are required to complete compulsory military service in Switzerland. 

A lawsuit which worked its way through the Swiss courts has now ended up in the European Court of Human Rights, where the judges will decide if Switzerland’s male-only conscription requirement violates anti-discrimination rules. 

Switzerland’s NZZ newspaper wrote on Monday the case has “explosive potential” and has “what it takes to cause a tremor” to a policy which was first laid out in Switzerland’s 1848 and 1874 Federal Constitutions. 

What is Switzerland’s compulsory military service? 

Article 59 of the Federal Constitution of Switzerland says “Every man with Swiss citizenship is liable for military service. Alternative civilian service shall be provided for by law.”

Recruits must generally do 18 weeks of boot camp (longer in some cases). 

They are then required to spend several weeks in the army every year until they have completed a minimum 245 days of service.

Military service is compulsory for Swiss men aged 18 and over. Women can chose to do military service but this is rare.

What about national rather than military service? 

Introduced in 1996, this is an alternative to the army, originally intended for those who objected to military service on moral grounds. 

READ MORE: The Swiss army’s growing problem with civilian service

Service is longer there than in the army, from the age of 20 to 40. 

This must be for 340 days in total, longer than the military service requirement. 

What about foreigners and dual nationals? 

Once you become a Swiss citizen and are between the ages of 18 and 30, you can expect to be conscripted. 

READ MORE: Do naturalised Swiss citizens have to do military service?

In general, having another citizenship in addition to the Swiss one is not going to exempt you from military service in Switzerland.

However, there is one exception: the obligation to serve will be waved, provided you can show that you have fulfilled your military duties in your other home country.

If you are a Swiss (naturalised or not) who lives abroad, you are not required to serve in the military in Switzerland, though you can voluntarily enlist. 

How do Swiss people feel about military and national service? 

Generally, the obligation is viewed relatively positively, both by the general public and by those who take part in compulsory service. 

While several other European countries have gotten rid of mandatory service, a 2013 referendum which attempted to abolish conscription was rejected by 73 percent of Swiss voters. 

What is the court case and what does it say? 

Martin D. Küng, the lawyer from the Swiss canton of Bern who has driven the case through the courts, has a personal interest in its success. 

He was found unfit for service but is still required to pay an annual bill to the Swiss government, which was 1662CHF for the last year he was required to pay it. 

While the 36-year-old no longer has to pay the amount – the obligation only lasts between the ages of 18 and 30 – Küng is bring the case on principle. 

So far, Küng has had little success in the Swiss courts, with his appeal rejected by the cantonal administrative court and later by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. 

Previous Supreme Court cases, when hearing objections to men-only military service, said that women are less suitable for conscription due to “physiological and biological differences”.

In Küng’s case, the judges avoided this justification, saying instead that the matter was a constitutional issue. 

‘No objective reason why only men have to do military service’

He has now appealed the decision to the European level. 

While men have previously tried and failed when taking their case to the Supreme Court, no Swiss man has ever brought the matter to the European Court of Human Rights. 

Küng told the NZZ that he considered the rule to be unjust and said the Supreme Court’s decision is based on political considerations. 

“I would have expected the Federal Supreme Court to have the courage to clearly state the obvious in my case and not to decide on political grounds,” Küng said. 

“There is no objective reason why only men have to do military service or pay replacement taxes. On average, women may not be as physically productive as men, but that is not a criterion for excluding them from compulsory military service. 

There are quite a few men who cannot keep up with women in terms of stamina. Gender is simply the wrong demarcation criterion for deciding on compulsory service. If so, then one would have to focus on physical performance.”

Is it likely to pass? 

Küng is optimistic that the Strasbourg court will find in his favour, pointing to a successful appeal by a German man who complained about a fire brigade tax, which was only imposed on men. 

“This question has not yet been conclusively answered by the court” Küng said. 

The impact of a decision in his favour could be considerable, with European law technically taking precedence over Swiss law.

It would set Switzerland on a collision course with the bloc, particularly given the popularity of the conscription provision. 

Küng clarified that political outcomes and repercussions don’t concern him. 

“My only concern is for a court to determine that the current regulation is legally wrong.”

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