Italian broadcaster’s sports chief resigns after gaffe-strewn Olympic commentary

Paolo Petrecca, director of Rai Sport, prompted widespread criticism and protests from journalists at network

The head of the sports division of the Italian public broadcaster Rai has resigned after his gaffe-strewn commentary of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony provoked protests among its journalists.

Paolo Petrecca, appointed director of Rai Sport last year, handed in his notice on Thursday after a board meeting, a source within Rai confirmed.

The controversy has been seized upon by members of the Italian opposition, who called his appointment an example of prioritising political affiliation over merit at the broadcaster they have accused of rightwing bias because of Petrecca’s close allegiance to Giorgia Meloni’s government.

During his commentary of the opening ceremony, Petrecca welcomed viewers to Rome’s Stadio Olimpico instead of Milan’s San Siro, where the event was held, before mistaking the Italian actor Matilda De Angelis for Mariah Carey and Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee, for Laura Mattarella, the daughter of the Italian president.

Petrecca, who had already been barred from presenting coverage of the closing ceremony, also failed to recognise two well-known members of the Italian women’s volleyball team taking part in the torch relay and commented on Spanish athletes who are “always very hot” and Chinese ones who “naturally … have phones in their hands”.

The gaffes drew widespread criticism and protests from Rai Sport journalists, who have withheld bylines from their coverage of the Games and were planning to strike for three days after the event had finished. Journalists from across Rai’s news networks withdrew their bylines from their work last Friday in a show of solidarity with their sports colleagues.

CDR, the internal union representing Rai journalists, previously said its members were “embarrassed” by Petrecca’s coverage.

The newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that Petrecca would step down at the end of the Milan Cortina Olympics, which conclude in Verona on Sunday, and would be replaced by Marco Lollobrigida, one of the broadcaster’s established sport presenters.

“Petrecca’s resignation from Rai Sport was necessary, but it comes too late,” said Stefano Graziano, a politician with the centre-left Democratic party who is on Rai’s parliamentary oversight committee.

Graziano said Petrecca was an “emblem” of what he called “TeleMeloni”.

He added: “This approach has ultimately weakened the authority of the news industry and, more generally, the entire Rai system. What’s needed now is a true break.”

In an unprecedented action in 2024, news anchors on Rai’s three main TV channels read a union statement condemning Meloni’s administration for “turning Rai into a government megaphone”.

Before coming to power in October 2022, Meloni often accused Rai of leftwing bias.