Italian sports diplomacy

While the formalities and negotiations are being finalised for the new legislature and the government to be headed by Giorgia Meloni, Italy's seasoned diplomats are busy doing what they always do: promoting and defending the country, above or almost beyond the lobbying of the political class.

The latest interesting example is in Madrid, where a large representation of the promoters and organisers of the next Ryder Cup, the golf competition that will pit European and American teams against each other from 29 September to 1 October 2023 at Guidonia Montecelio, a few kilometres from Rome, has arrived. 

The trophy, revered as if it were Aladdin's lamp, is the first and only time that it has left the so-called Eternal City, and it has done so only to be presented in Madrid, as a symbol of gratitude for Spain's contribution to the fact that this competition, born in 1927, not only did not languish until it disappeared, but has managed to become, with more than 600 million viewers, the third most followed sporting event in the world, after the Olympic Games and the World Football Championships.

Ricardo Guariglia, the Italian Ambassador to Spain, received the trophy with great pomp and ceremony, installing it next to a large photographic exhibition in which, with the trophy in the foreground, it is toured around all the great monuments of Rome. The Embassy encourages Spanish clubs and institutions to place it in their facilities as well. 

Guariglia, who insists on the splendid moment in Italian-Spanish relations, points out the gigantic impact that an event like the Ryder will have on his country in symbolic, media and economic terms. The event has become a major driving force in Italy's national recovery and resilience plan, known as "Italia Domani". Moreover, at a time when some European media have even speculated and alarmed about the possibility of Italy leaving the euro and even the EU itself, the ambassador never ceases to insist that this competition is the only one in which Europe presents a single team under the blue flag with the twelve stars, which brings together the best players on the continent, regardless of their nationality. That same flag will once again encompass the British members of the team, even if Brexit has once again imposed a border on them.

Guariglia also emphasises a detail that seems to him to be of great importance and one of those that still reinforces confidence in the human race: 

In a world increasingly driven and managed by economic profit, the Ryder is the only great competition that exists, in which the best in the world fight exclusively for honour and not for the more or less attractive purse that may be presented to them. It is almost a throwback to the ancient world, where athletes fought for the laurel wreath and the quadriga ride acclaimed by the masses. In this respect, there is probably no other city in the world like Rome, where you can still hear the echoes of crowds cheering on their best idols, in the Colosseum or the Foro Italico.

In this "soft power" displayed by its diplomacy, the Italian embassy has also taken the opportunity to present its candidacy to host, also in Rome, the Universal Exposition of 2030, centred on one of the world's major concerns: urban regeneration. Italy is therefore not content with having organised the Milan 2015 Expo, with a certainly successful outcome. 

To the foreign spectator, Italy's convoluted politics seem like a labyrinth that is difficult to understand. In any case, this characteristic does not seem to make a dent in the country's society or in its diplomacy, which, regardless of the colour of the government, always defends its interests, without the need to shamelessly resort to the Trumpist slogan "Italy first".