Roma, Città Sportiva - Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City - page 149

failure, however, of some contractors to meet construction deadlines for facili-
ties projected as training camps for the various national teams once again raised
serious questions about transparency and the extent to which lessons from the
past had been learned.
as accusations of corruption began to dog the construction process, the ir-
reverent investigative television journalists of mediaset's Le Iene asked some very
difficult and very public questions following a series of articles in the daily news-
paper La Repubblica in 2009. four hundred million euros were allocated for the
creation of five major venues, the bulk of which was dedicated to a new palazzo
dello sport, nicknamed la Vela (the sail). an unmistakable addition to the sky-
line in Rome's eastern periphery, visible from as far away as the Janiculum hill,
four years after the event the building remained unfinished. to be completed in
two stages—the first for the swimming championship and the second in time for
the following year's volleyball tournament in april 2009—the structure was in-
tended to be a key part of italy's expected 2020 olympic bid. however, only four
months before the world's elite swimmers were due to perform, Le Iene 's jou rna l-
ists revealed that works had barely begun and the tournament was moved to the
fascist-built foro italico. in July 2011, responding to the suspension of works, the
Rome City Councilor marco Corsini stated: “The figure of €408 million in the
current economic circumstances is significant and it is difficult to predict a quick
solution, but certainly if public finance difficulties continue the olympic bid will
be decisive” (boccacci 2011).
Given the huge expenditure of public money, equally worrying was the
construction of dozens of private pools with no connection to the event beyond
their apparent necessity as training venues. one case described by Corrado
Zunino, in april 2009, was that of three new pools built on land owned by the
city council but used by members of the exclusive rowing club Canottieri aniene
in Rome's affluent parioli quarter. Costing almost fourteen million euros, funds
were raised through the public body Credito sportivo and would be repaid over
twenty years. Club president Giovanni malagò, who also happened to be presi-
dent of the swimming world Championships organizing Committee, promised
that the pools would be open to schools and citizens of the local area in which,
incidentally, there were already twenty within a radius of 1 km of the foro italico
(Zunino 2009, 7).
to serve the apparent needs of the world Championships, a further eight
pools were also projected in this most affluent part of the city. at its complex near
the foro italico, the Club tevere Remo also joined the fray, pursuing authoriza-
tion to build a pool despite the municipal government's initially negative assess-
ment. two other societies also began works on their own projects thanks to the
efforts of their managing director luigi barelli, whose brother was president of
the National swimming federation and vice president of the 2009 event's orga-