The troubled Italian football world got a new chief on Monday when Giancarlo Abete was voted head of national soccer federation FIGC.
Abete, the only member of the federation's old top brass unscathed by last year's traumatic Calciopoli referee-rigging scandal, said after his election that Italian soccer would "go forward with pride" under his leadership.
"We still have a lot of things to do," he said, referring to recent efforts to wipe out hooliganism after a policeman's death in a riot, "but I think that this sport can start transmitting positive values once again".
The emergency commissioner who has led the FIGC in the wake the scandal, Luca Pancalli, said Abete was the right man for the job.
"I have the utmost respect for Abete. Now let's give him time to continue the reforms we have started during my term".
Most Serie A bosses welcomed his election, with Roma chief Rosella saying "he represents a new beginning" and Lazio chairman Claudio Lotito voicing confidence that he would "continue the renewal of ths system".
Abete, 57, a former Christian Democrat MP and FIGC vice president, ran unchallenged for the post.
His election marks a return to some degree of normality for Italian soccer.
He will be backed up by one of the oldest hands in Italian soccer, Antonio Matarrese, former FIFA executive and currently president of the Italian Soccer League (Lega Calcio).
Matarrese, 66 will keep his Lega job along with acting as No.2 to Abete.
The FIGC has been in the hands of emergency commissioners since May, when Calciopoli forced out former president Franco Carraro, one of 12 officials and club directors found guilty of misconduct.
Carraro was first replaced by Guido Rossi - now head of Telecom Italia - and then by Pancalli, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) Vice President.
Abete, who served three parliamentary terms in the Lower House in the 1980s and early 1990s, has been a top Italian soccer administrator for 19 years.
Serie A is still feeling the fallout of Calciopoli and of the death of the policeman in rioting at a top-flight game in Catania last month.
During Abete's election campaign there were some doubters among the Serie A chairmen who claimed he was nonethless a return to the past.
But Abete's diplomacy, honesty and experience of the game swung things his way in the end.
As well as battling Italy's hooliganism problem, Abete has pledged to persuade clubs to reduce ticket prices to encourage families back to the stadiums.
Abete failed in a previous bid to be elected FIGC president in 2000.
On that occasion the big Serie A clubs vetoed his candidacy because they did not like his calls for greater fairness in the way soccer revenues are shared out.
