(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 08 - Sergio Mattarella will be at Wembley on Sunday to support the Azzurri in the final of the European Football Championships between Italy and England. A decision taken after having received, yesterday, the formal invitation from Uefa, as foreseen by the protocol. He is not the first Italian Head of State to adhere to this invitation. In the history of Italian republican, the memory of Sandro Pertini's surprise arrival at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, on 11 July 1982, and his exultation in the grandstand at the goldi Marco Tardelli against Germany is still vivid. ) in the fourth final of the World Cup to which the Italian has landed in its history. Pertini raised his arms waving his very famous pipe in front of a king of Spain, Juan Carlos, smiling and amused.
In the second post-war World Cup final, which saw Italy as protagonist against Brazil, that of Pasadena in the United States, it was the then president of the Chamber Irene Pivetti who represented the Italian institutions on the stage. In 2000, on 2 July, another President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, showed up at the European final lost by Italy against France in Rotterdam.
In 2006, at the World Cup final played and won in Berlin by our national team against France, it was the turn of Ciampi's successor, Giorgio Napolitano. Prime Minister Mario Draghi as a football enthusiast and Roma fan, will see the game at home next Sunday, with his family, perhaps in his buen retiro in Città dellaPieve, some of his ministers are betting. And he certainly wouldn't mind being at Wembley to watch the match against England live. (HANDLE).