Settebello, 6-month ban and $50,000 fine for protesting at Paris 2024

L’Aquatics Integrity Unit della World Aquatics ha comminato 6 month disqualification for Settebello, with a fine of 50,000 dollars to be paid by 15 January 2025 (and another 50,000 dollars conditional on future infringements committed by 17 October 2026) for the protest that took place at the 2024 Paris Olympics following the serious technical error by referees and VAR which compromised the progress of the national team water polo eliminated in the quarter-finals against Hungary. The ban begins on October 17, today. Federnuoto writes it.

What happened

As is known, the appeals made by Federnuoto in the 36 hours following the match, although rejected, had led to the admission by the relevant bodies of World Aquatics of the lack of violence and intentionality in Francesco Condemi’s action, which was therefore legal. In fact, the player was not disqualified for the subsequent matches, i.e. the semi-finals and finals for fifth/seventh place. Therefore the 3-3 scored by the Settebello striker against Hungary was valid; the attacker should not have been sent off, Italy should not have played 4 minutes less, the Hungarians should not have benefited from the 4-2 penalty.

Having said this, and having acquired the documents, the Federnuoto will not appeal. At the same time he reiterates the need for the jury to have at its disposal technical tools of a high professional level, in order to avoid the possibility of repeating errors that are as sensational as they are harmful to the image of water polo.

The Federnuoto, aware of the potential of the national team and sharing its ambitions, takes this opportunity to thank managers, technicians, athletes and staff for the three-year period 2021-2024 during which two world silver medals were won (with finals lost on penalties in Budapest 2022 and Doha 2024), a European bronze (Zagreb 2024) and the World League was won for the first time.