Cagliari native Angelo Binaghi, president of the Fitp (Italian Tennis and Padel Federation), is the second most esteemed sports manager by Italians, with 65.2% of positive ratings. This is the result of the "Sponsor Value Manager" survey, carried out by the Bologna agency StageUp and by lpsos, which collected the ratings of the main sports managers in Italy. Binaghi was surpassed only by Stefano Domenicali, president of Formula One, who reached 71.1% of appreciation and closed in first place for the second time after 2020.
Binaghi is also the sports manager whose esteem has grown the most between 2022 and 2024 (+10.8%), a sign (also) of the growing popularity of tennis and padel after the successes of the last two years . In September he was re-elected to lead the Fitp, which he has presided over since 2001, until 2028. Also very positive is the opinion regarding the work of the president of the LBA (Lega Basket Serie A) Umberto Gandini, who convinced 60.9% of the participants in the survey. The StageUp and Ipsos report identified the sports manager of the year taking into account the data relating to the esteem and notoriety of the managers, and the changes in the parameters compared to the previous year.
Antonio Percassi, president of Atalanta, was named sports manager of the year. In 2024, he won the Europa League and achieved great results in Serie A, Champions League and Coppa Italia . He took first place in the 2024 ranking of Italian managers for notoriety and appreciation, ahead of Giuseppe Marotta (president of Inter) and Giovanni Malagò, number one of Coni. At the foot of the podium, Domenicali and Gabriele Gravina, at the helm of the FIGC.
"The results of Sponsor Value Manager demonstrate that sports managers are well-known among Italians and that their professionalism is seen as central not only to the achievement of competitive successes, but also to the sustainable growth of Italian sports," said Giovanni Palazzi, president of StageUp. "It is worth noting, within a system that sees football as a stage without equal, ."
