Giovanni Malagò says he has already spoken to 13 Serie A presidents and that they all back him. The bigger problem for his camp is that the vote still looks unsettled, with a 14-club meeting exposing a clear split before the November 4 deadline.

Malagò's lobbying push

Speaking to football-italia.net, Malagò said: "I’m calling all the Serie A presidents one by one. I’ve already spoken to 13, and they all guarantee me their support". That is his own account, and it sits alongside a very different read of the room from other reports.

Sky Sport Italia said the race is still in an interlocutory phase, "still made up of phone calls and discussions" rather than signature gathering. Silvia Vallini, quoted by Sky Sport Italia in comments translated from Italian, added: "The match is being played point for point and everything is still to be decided".

The political weight of the league is not small. Serie A clubs account for 18% of the FIGC electorate, so even a split inside the division matters. In June, 19 clubs out of 20 voted for Malagò, which makes the current uncertainty more striking than the old numbers suggest.

The clubs still pulling in different directions

Sky Sport Italia and TuttomercatoWeb reported that 14 clubs took part in the meeting, and the alignments did not point in one direction. Inter and Atalanta were among the clubs pushing Adriano Galliani's candidacy at the meeting, while Napoli, AS Roma and Bologna were reported as Malagò backers in the latest club split.

The league table also gives those names extra weight in different ways. Inter are top of Serie A with 22 points from 8 matches, AS Roma are third with 18 points from 8 matches, and Napoli are 10th with 11 points from 8 matches.

That mix is why the vote still feels live. Malagò can point to his own phone calls, but the reported club positions show a race that has not settled into a single bloc. With November 4 still ahead, the meeting left the impression of a contest that is being fought club by club, not one that has already been locked down.

Written by Daniel Hartley with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →