Sport e Salute S.p.A., the Italian government's wholly owned sports promotion vehicle, has locked in its leadership team for another three years and published financial results for fiscal year 2025 (announced June 2026) that reveal the scale of public sports investment flowing through the company—€1.3 billion managed in 2025 alone—while positioning itself as the engine behind Italy's bid to host major international competitions, including the 2027 America's Cup in Naples.
Why This Matters
• €13.7M profit reported for fiscal 2025, with production value hitting a record €183M.
• Marco Mezzaroma (President) and Diego Nepi Molineris (CEO) retained by shareholder vote, with parliamentary backing.
• The entity is now the operational backbone for school sports programs reaching 2.2 million Italian children and infrastructure projects worth €85M in new facilities.
• Naples 2027 America's Cup designated as flagship project, with Sport e Salute acting as implementing authority.
Leadership Continuity Signals Policy Stability
The Shareholders' Assembly of Sport e Salute, convened on June 19, 2026, unanimously reconfirmed the current board of directors, a move that underscores continuity in Italy's approach to grassroots sports funding and event promotion. The decision followed favorable opinions from both the Chamber of Deputies and Senate oversight committees, a procedural requirement for state-controlled entities.
Mezzaroma and Nepi Molineris, both in place since 2023, will lead the company through 2029. Also retained were board members Maria Spena, Rita Di Quinzio, and Fabio Caiazzo. Piero Alonzo remains chair of the auditing board, joined by Claudia Adami and Elena Gazzola.
The reappointment was framed by the leadership as a recognition of "concrete results" rather than political continuity. Nepi Molineris noted that three years ago Sport e Salute was "a reality to be built"; today it is a "consolidated company with a recognized role in the national sports system."
Financial Performance and Resource Deployment
Sport e Salute's approved 2025 financial statements show an operating result of €13.07M and net profit of €13.7M, generated on production value of €183M—the highest since the company's formation. The entity does not sell goods or services in the traditional sense; rather, it functions as a fiscal conduit and project manager for public sports spending allocated by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Over the course of 2025, the company distributed and managed approximately €1.3 billion in government funds, channeling resources into territorial development, physical activity promotion, and competitive sports infrastructure. In practical terms, this translated into:
• 1 million hours of organized sports activities.
• 2.5 million participants across programs nationwide.
• 195 new sports facilities commissioned, representing €85M in capital investment.
• 1,600 social and sports projects administered at the local level.
• 145 event days dedicated to major sporting occasions.
The company also allocated €344M directly to Italian sports federations, bodies, and member organizations in 2026, emphasizing a structural pivot toward treating sport as a value-generating ecosystem rather than a simple recipient of state funding.
School Programs Expand Reach, Touch 2.2 Million Youth
A key operational focus remains the "Scuola Attiva" (Active School) initiative, a multi-tier program designed to embed structured physical activity into the Italian education system. For the 2024/2025 academic year, the program engaged 2.2 million students aged 5 to 13, a 12.6% year-on-year increase. Participation involved 12,200 schools and the deployment of 7,700 federally certified tutors and coaches.
The program is now segmented into three streams:
• Scuola Attiva Infanzia: Launched nationally for the first time in 2025/2026, targeting preschool-age children.
• Scuola Attiva Kids: Focused on primary schools, emphasizing motor skill development and play-based sport.
• Scuola Attiva Junior: Aimed at lower secondary schools, offering students orientation sessions in two sports disciplines per school.
All three rely on the "Tutor Sportivo Scolastico" figure—typically a graduate or advanced student in sports science—who works alongside classroom teachers to design and implement activity schedules. Supplementary elements include "Active Pauses" during the school day, outdoor education excursions branded as "Wellness Days," and end-of-term sports festivals.
The initiative is viewed as preparatory infrastructure for the "Nuovi Giochi della Gioventù" (New Youth Games), a national school sports competition framework codified by Law 41/2025, which recognizes physical education as fundamental to cognitive development and character formation.
Infrastructure Modernization and Territorial Mapping
Beyond programming, Sport e Salute has taken on the technical challenge of modernizing Italy's national sports facility census, a decades-old registry of public and semi-public athletic infrastructure. The company reports progress in 90% of Italian regions, involving 4,800 municipalities and coordinating updates to the Registry of Amateur Sports Activities, a database used to verify eligibility for tax incentives and public grants.
This bureaucratic overhaul is intended to improve resource allocation transparency and enable better matching of facility supply with demographic demand, particularly in underserved suburban and rural zones.
America's Cup 2027: Strategic Sporting Event
Sport e Salute has been designated implementing authority for the 38th America's Cup, scheduled for summer 2027 in Naples. The government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Sports Minister Andrea Abodi, has prioritized hosting this storied sailing competition as part of Italy's strategy to promote international sporting events.
The "Road to Naples" preliminary regatta calendar includes races in Cagliari (May 2026) and Naples (September 2026), serving as test events. Sport e Salute's role encompasses coordination of organizing activities and infrastructure requirements for the event.
What This Means for Residents
For Italian taxpayers, Sport e Salute functions as the central clearinghouse for how the state spends public money on non-elite sport. The company's expanding budget and operational scope mean that local sports clubs, municipal facilities, and school programs increasingly depend on its funding pipelines and certification processes.
Parents with school-age children should be aware that Scuola Attiva programs are now standard in most primary and lower secondary schools, with participation effectively embedded in the curriculum rather than optional. The expansion into preschool settings marks a further integration of state-directed physical activity into early childhood education.
For municipalities, access to infrastructure grants and project funding is contingent on compliance with Sport e Salute's updated facility census and registry requirements. Local governments should coordinate with the company's territorial teams to ensure timely access to capital improvement funds.
The America's Cup represents a significant sporting event for Italy. The organization and hosting of the competition will require coordination of venue preparation and logistical arrangements, with Sport e Salute managing these responsibilities.
Leadership's Strategic Vision
In statements accompanying the shareholder vote, both Mezzaroma and Nepi Molineris emphasized a mandate to "take sport where it does not yet reach"—a reference to geographic and socioeconomic disparities in access to organized physical activity. Mezzaroma framed the next three years as a phase of "raising the bar," focusing on schools and peripheral zones, both urban and rural.
Nepi Molineris invoked Article 33 of the Italian Constitution, which guarantees the right to education, arguing that sport should be understood as an extension of that constitutional promise—a tool for prevention, well-being, and quality of life rather than simply recreation or competitive performance.
The leadership also highlighted the broader economic footprint of Italian sport, citing the "Sport 2025 Report" produced in collaboration with the Institute for Sports and Cultural Credit. The report estimates that Italy's sports sector generates €32 billion in added value annually (approximately 1.5% of GDP) and employs 421,000 people. It also notes a historic decline in sedentary behavior, with 38 million Italians now classified as physically active.
Fiscal and Governance Context
Sport e Salute S.p.A. was created as a joint-stock company fully owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, functioning under private-sector legal form but with public mission and accountability. Its budget is not subject to typical ministerial appropriations processes but is instead drawn from a dedicated funding stream authorized by Parliament and administered through the ministry.
Board appointments require parliamentary committee approval, a mechanism intended to ensure cross-party oversight and prevent purely executive control. The unanimous reconfirmation of the current leadership suggests broad political consensus on the company's operational direction, at least at the governance level.
The company's financial results, while modest in absolute profit terms, are not intended to maximize return on equity but rather to demonstrate operational sustainability and efficient use of public funds. The positive net result indicates that administrative costs are covered without drawing down capital reserves or requiring additional equity injections from the Treasury.
