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The White House Junior International (Carrousel Cup) is a famous junior competition. It takes place in the White House club: IJsbaanpad 45, Amsterdam. Italy won the tournament in 2010, and has been invited together with Israel, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and obviously Netherlands. A few days ago we came to know that the Italian junior team will not take part to this competition; on Kees Tammens’ blog, the organizer, we can read: “Unfortunately Italy did not find any funding to send a team, thus the 2010 winners will not take part”.
But there is more. A few days before, 15th of March, Kees Tammens complained that the Italian Federation did not let him know whether the junior team was going to take part or not, and he published this note:
“If any Italian junior or official reads this bulletin please get back to me. I got some messages that Italy will surely participate but I have not received any official confirmation yet. Italy is a long time contestant in Dutch Junior events and the winner two years ago in the Witt Huis. So I certainly hope and reckon that the Italian junior team will be again in Amsterdam in this year’s event”.
Neapolitan Club posted this note and Kees Tammens himself posted it again on our magazine.
We asked a clarification to the manager of the Junior department of the Italian Federation, Giuseppe Failla.
About the delay in getting back to the tournament organizer, Failla told us: “This is a real
disappointment for me. I received the invitation from the tournament organizer about three months ago and I told him that I would have let him know whether we were going to take part: I warned him then that the Italian Federation was facing monetary issues because it had been put under a commissioner, as known. I did not receive any further reminders from the organizer, and I think this happened because my old e-mail address has been shut.
The final Federation’s decision not to send a team to Amsterdam has been taken roughly a week ago, and I was not aware that the tournament organizer had not been informed. I came to know about Kees Tammens blog only through Neapolitan Club, and various social networks, a few days ago. At that point I immediately asked Maurizio Di Sacco to write an official email to let the organizer know that Italy was not going to take part. I also sent my personal apologies to Kees Tammens”.
Moreover, Failla explained us the reasons why Italy is not taking part: “We had to use the available resources basing on the whole year’s juniors activities. Three junior teams qualified to play in the World Championships in Taicang, China, this will involve high expenditure. I would like to highlight that the only department that does not suffer from 2012 cost-cutting manoeuvres is the junior department. As everybody knows, the Italian Federation has been put under a commissioner by CONI*. Nonetheless we would probably have not had any money to send the juniors to this tournament anyway, because this year too many expenses are planned.
The commissioner Marchioni and the substitute commissioner Quarnali made sure the juniors department was not affected by the cuts they imposed: the money dedicated to junior activities is actually higher in 2012 than in 2011. For this reason we confirmed that we will send 3 teams to the World Junior Championships in Taicang (China), the junior meeting in Bologna (40 juniors will travel at Federation’s expenses for two days), that we will send 3 pairs to the European Junior Championships in Vejle (Denmark). It is a shame, or rather it is excellent, that the calendar this year is so full that we had to cut something, even though it was a real shame.
I take the opportunity to thank the commissioner and substitute commissioner for being so careful with the junior department”.
*Note: CONI is the Italian National Olympic Committee. This is the body that takes care of all sport activities in Italy. The Italian Bridge Federation, like all other sports associations, is a member of CONI.
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Laura Camponeschi (english translation by Laura Cecilia Porro for Neapolitan Club)
March 23, 2012