Guido Rossi

Guido Rossi (16 March 1931 – 21 August 2017) was an Italian jurist, lawyer, and politician.

Rossi was born in Milan on 16 March 1931.

He studied at the Ghislieri College from 1948 to 1953, and graduated in law from the University of Pavia.

In 1954, he obtained a Master of Laws at Harvard University.

As a former professor of commercial law, comparative private law, and philosophy of law in Trieste, Venice, Pavia, and Milan at the Statale, Bocconi, and Vita-Salute San Raffaele universities, he was appointed president of Consob, Italy's equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission, in 1981.

A member of the Senate of the Republic for the Italian Communist Party and later the Independent Left in the Legislature X of Italy from 1987 to 1992, he was the promoter of antitrust legislation in Italy.

He later led Ferruzzi-Montedison, and then Telecom Italia.

Rossi was an avowed supporter of Inter Milan, an association football club of which he served as a member of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.

He was accused of partiality and conflict of interest, charges that Rossi denied.

In an interview with the Corriere della Sera, former FIGC president Franco Carraro said that Rossi, with regard to the assignment of the title, had been badly advised by the experts, the Three Sages (Gerhard Aigner, Massimo Coccia, and Roberto Pardolesi), he appointed.

Aigner denied this, saying that his task and that of the other two experts was to verify whether the statutes and regulations of UEFA, FIGC, and Lega Calcio allowed for the possibility of creating a different standings after the penalty of some clubs.

According to Aigner, the rules granted this possibility and the task of experts was limited to confirming it to Rossi who, once he had acquired the legal opinion, autonomously decreed the assignment of the scudetto.

For a year in the 2000s, Rossi defended the Dutch bank Abn Amro.

In 2003, he defended Cesare Geronzi, the president of Capitalia, who was involved in the Cirio and Parmalat scandals.

In 2006, he was appointed extraordinary commissioner of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) to manage the emergency situation created after the Calciopoli scandal.

On 15 September 2006, following the resignation of Marco Tronchetti Provera, he was reappointed president of Telecom Italia, and told a parliamentary committee in Rome that the company would cut its debt to €38 billion by the end of the year from €41.3 billion in June.

As the FIGC's extraordinary commissioner in the aftermath of the 2006 Italian football scandal, amid calls to have Marcello Lippi, the then Italy national football team, replaced by the likes of Carlo Ancelotti, Claudio Gentile, and Dino Zoff, Rossi was given the final decision.

From the beginning, he wanted to avoid any change, and he ultimately decided to keep Lippi; he said that he had full trust in Lippi.

After leading Italy to win the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the team's first World Cup since 1982, despite Rossi's attempts to convince him to stay, saying that "he should remain by popular acclamation because he is the right coach for this national team", Lippi decided to leave, citing insults to himself and his son.

Rossi's stint as the FIGC's extraordinary commissioner during the Calciopoli scandal, as well as his role in the scandal's investigation, and the 26 July 2006 decision to award third-placed Inter Milan the 2005–06 Serie A title after penalties for the other clubs, were controversial.

He held this position until 6 April 2007.

In 2008, in an attempt to relaunch the company in crisis of sales, he became a consultant for Fiat.

Rossi was editor-in-chief of the magazines Rivista delle Società and Banca, Borsa e Titoli di Credito, as well as a columnist for il manifesto and Il Sole 24 Ore.

On 4 May 2011, he was appointed ethical guarantor of Consob, a position from which he resigned on 26 October 2012.

In 2013, he described Bitcoin as "a risky instrument", and compared it to derivatives, and said it "can overturn the rules of capitalism."

Rossi died in Milan on 21 August 2017, aged 86.

He is survived by his wife Francesca and their daughters Sara and Livia, as well as a daughter from his previous marriage to Alessandra.

As an atheist and in line with his personal views, no funeral was held.

In 2018, his name was inscribed in the Famedio inside the Monumental Cemetery of Milan.