ROME: The International Olympic Committee will consider imposing a humiliating probation on Italys team for the Tokyo Games this week because of a two-year domestic dispute that it says amounts to government interference.
The IOC has taken issue with the Italian governments formation of a new organization, Sport e Salute, that was created at the start of 2019 to run the countrys sports finances. The money was previously controlled by an arm of the Italian Olympic Committee.
Possible punishments from the IOC could include preventing Italian athletes in Tokyo from wearing their national team uniforms and hearing their national anthem being played.
Barring a last-minute change from the government, the embarrassing prospect of probation would lump Italy together with Russia, which last month was banned from using its name, flag and anthem at the next two Olympics or at any world championships for the next two years in fallout from a state-backed doping scandal.
International bodies such…