Giancarlo Abete (born 26 August 1950) is an Italian politician and sport director. Formerly a member of the Italian parliament, Abete is now the third vice president of

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

. Abete also served positions in the

FIGC The Italian Football Federation (, ; FIGC ), known colloquially as (), is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence. It manages and coordinates the Italian football l ...

before being admitted to UEFA in 2009.

Early life

Abete was born in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, Italy. As entrepreneur, he went to

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

and earned a degree in Economics and Commerce.

Career

In politics

He sat in the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament () is the national parliament of the Italy, Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingd ...

from 1979 to 1992 among the ranks of

Christian Democracy Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

. He stayed there for 20 years before deciding to go elsewhere in 1992. In 1994, Abete was elected as the president of the Rome entrepreneurs association which he served as until 2000. Abete served as the head of Rome's tourist board from 1999 to 2003.

In football

Abete first became involved in the

in 1989. He later became president of the

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

and the association's vice president from 1996 to 2000 and again from 2001 to 2006. He was head of the Italian delegation when Italy won the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

. Abete was elected president of the FIGC in April 2007. In 2009, Abete was admitted to UEFA in 2009 and became a vice president in 2011. Abete stepped down from his position of president of the FIGC in 2014, but he still continues to be a vice president of UEFA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abete, Giancarlo 20th-century Italian politicians 1950 births Living people Members of the UEFA Executive Committee Italian football chairmen and investors Sapienza University of Rome alumni Politicians from Rome