Sport has become one of the strategic levers through which the Farnesina projects the Italian System abroad. No longer a mere symbolic field of representation, "sports diplomacy" is today a structured instrument of the growth policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI): it serves to support the internationalization of businesses, enhance national excellence and foster, through Olympic values, a channel of dialogue among peoples. The center of action, however, does not remain in Rome: it runs through the diplomatic-consular network and CONI delegates abroad, with Switzerland among the territories where this coordination is most concrete.
The turning point is both recent and dated. On January 15, 2024, the Farnesina established the Sports Diplomacy Office, incorporated as Office XII of the Directorate General for Growth and Export Promotion (DGCE). With this move, MAECI included sport in the broad range of strategic promotion tools serving "growth diplomacy," with the aim of favoring the international projection of Italian sporting excellence and related production chains, in synergy with CONI, the Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP), Sport e Salute, Federations, the ICE Agency and trade associations.
The decisive step came on September 9, 2025, on the occasion of the second "Italian Sport Day in the World" at Villa Madama, dedicated to the theme "Mountain and Sea." In the presence of Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Minister for Sport and Youth Andrea Abodi, CONI President Luciano Buonfiglio and CIP President Marco Giunio De Sanctis, a new Memorandum of Understanding was signed between MAECI, the Ministry of Sport, CONI and CIP. The document systematizes the diplomatic-consular network and that of CONI delegates, provides for the involvement of Olympic and Paralympic testimonials and lays the foundations for a Diplomatic Committee for Sport. In the same context, Minister Tajani appointed eleven new "Ambassadors of sports diplomacy," champions from various disciplines divided by territory, called upon to witness Italian excellence alongside the more than 300 events already organized worldwide by the network of Embassies and consulates.
The economic weight of the sector explains the political investment. On the occasion of National Sports Day in June 2026, the Farnesina recalled that the sector generates approximately 32 billion euros in added value, nearly 1.5% of GDP, with exports of sports goods exceeding 4.7 billion euros — a figure that places Italy among the top five world exporters and in second place in Europe. The priority is also confirmed in budget guidelines: in the 2026-2028 three-year period, MAECI intends to strengthen sports diplomacy action in support of the internationalization of production chains linked to sport.
The operational point of contact between the Roman strategy and the territories is the figure of the CONI Foreign Delegate. With resolution no. 313 of October 29, 2025, the National Council led by President Luciano Buonfiglio — elected on June 26, 2025 — renewed the network of its delegates for the 2025-2028 Olympic quadrennium, confirming assignments in the seven countries with the strongest and most stable Italian presence: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, United States, Switzerland and Venezuela.
These are voluntary and unpaid positions, reserved — as provided by the Regulation of Italian Communities Abroad (CIE) — for Italian citizens residing abroad in possession of the technical and professional requirements necessary to spread sports culture and organize youth promotion activities. It is precisely through this network that the MAECI-CONI Protocol finds legs on the ground: the coordination between delegates and foreign offices is designed to organically integrate their respective activities.
An emblematic vehicle of this integration is the CONI Trophy. Since 2023, sports representatives of Italian communities abroad not only compete in the disciplines of the official program, but rediscover, as "travelers of roots," the places of origin of their families: a graft between sport and culture that connects directly to the "Roots Tourism" project promoted by the Directorate General for Italians Abroad of MAECI, governed by an institutional collaboration agreement between CONI and the Farnesina.
Switzerland is one of the territories where this model is observed most clearly, given the historical consistency of the Italian community. For the 2025-2028 quadrennium, the position of CONI Foreign Delegate for Switzerland has been confirmed to Dr. Cirano Tondi, in an appointment communicated directly by President Buonfiglio, who emphasized how through this figure CONI can enhance young Italian talents abroad and strengthen the promotion of the Country System that is the subject of the Protocol with MAECI, the Ministry of Sport and CIP.
The mandate is clearly anchored to the territory: to promote sports culture and practice among young Italian and Italian-Swiss generations, support emerging talents and foster collaboration with Italian institutions in Switzerland — from consulates to Committees of Italians Abroad (Com.It.Es.), from managing bodies to Italian schools — and with local sports organizations. The operational reference is the address delegato.svizzera@coni.it.
It is in this interweaving that the role of consulates becomes substantial. Consular offices constitute the first outpost of the Italian System on the ground: they make available their network of relationships with communities and local institutions, host and support promotional events, and serve as a link between the CONI delegate, sports associations of the community and Italian institutional actors on site. The delegate, for his part, brings technical expertise and capillarity in the world of amateur and youth sports. Collaboration with consulates thus makes it possible to transform the strategic lines defined in Rome into concrete events aimed at Italians in Switzerland.
Sports diplomacy now presents itself as a structural, and no longer episodic, component of Italian international action. Its effectiveness will depend on the ability to make the chain connecting Rome to the communities work: from the Permanent Board and the Diplomatic Committee for Sport, to the appointments of CONI delegates, to the daily work of consulates. In Switzerland, where the Italian community is among the largest in Europe, the synergy between the CONI delegate, consulates, Com.It.Es. and schools represents a concrete testing ground for measuring how much sport can truly strengthen the bond between Italy and its citizens abroad — and, with it, the image of the Italian System in the world.
