Vito Iacono: "I'm stepping aside: envy, hatred, and squalid power games have killed the spirit of Forio Basket."

With deep sadness and words laden with pain, Vito Iacono announces his decision to retire from basketball. This isn't a sudden resignation, but a decision that has matured over time, made inevitable by a climate poisoned by malice, envy, and petty interests. His departure is accompanied by a strong and direct denunciation: personal attacks, covert plots orchestrated by local politicians and leaders, a systematic campaign of delegitimization culminating in the creation of a new club built on his work, his passion, and the history of Forio Basket.

It's not just weariness, it's disillusionment. It's a refusal to remain in an environment where sport is betrayed, used, and sold. Where years of sacrifice are traded for promises from the bar, packets of coffee, and convenient sponsors. Iacono refuses to allow basketball to become a bargaining chip, a tool for personal ambitions, a playground for family feuds, or political score-settling.

His departure is an act of rupture. A cry for dignity. A clear indictment of those who have transformed a sporting project into an arena of power, demeaning the founding values of sport. And as he steps aside, Iacono entrusts his words to a letter that is much more than a farewell: it is a page of uncomfortable truth, one that leaves its mark.

I'm leaving basketball. I'm tired, and I think it's a duty I owe to my family, to the friends who have supported me over the years, to myself, and also to Forio Basket and basketball.

It has nothing to do with the recent shameful acts of gratuitous profiteering, the physical and verbal violence suffered, the circumstances reported to me that over the years, and again in recent weeks, a former mayor, a city councilor, candidates of the parties adverse policies, would have over time plotted to "get rid of me" with promises of "money and sponsors" and it has nothing to do with the circumstance that while I confided my tiredness to friends, others, instead of supporting a tired person, gathered papers, documents until they formulated the president's indication to set up a new company.

As if Forio Basket and the passion and values and the battles for the right to sport and sport itself were something to be bought or bartered or used, forgetting that Forio Basket is an important story of victories, defeats, mistakes, great achievements, great disappointments and sacrifices, of women and men, who are no longer with us today, a story of passion and love that is worth a little more than a couple of packs of coffee pods or the promise of twenty or so sponsors.

A decision I'd been pondering for some time, and one that some confidants had thought it a mistake to express. Those who know me know that when I have something to say, I don't need ambassadors. I thought and hoped that I'd at least be left with the power to decide when and how to say it. More violence.

I thought I had sown, at least in sport, passion, love, good feelings and instead I discovered that they were harboring envy, frustration, jealousy, but also hatred, resentment, in the name of who knows what sick ambition, placed on himself or his children.

These feelings pervade families, other sports clubs, and coaches to whom we also intended to entrust the training and development of our athletes in the future.

Of course, this isn't goodbye, but I think I need to rest and detox from all this. For someone who has always thought of sport as a means of meeting, learning, and developing our many young people, for someone who has believed and believes in sport as a social and civic value—and I hope I've succeeded in conveying these values to at least a small portion of our many athletes—this is truly too much.

I repeat, this has nothing to do with my decision to leave, at least for now, but it's unfortunate that I'm making this decision with regret for what happened.

The truth is that someone has thought, and not only in basketball, to invade the enclosure and contaminate the sacred places of the education and growth of our youth, the court, the bench, the locker room, the team group which today sometimes also becomes a wa group.

It would be enough to stay in the stands and discreetly follow the growth of our children from the doorstep, at least in sport, without having to necessarily insult and offend young opponents or referees or criticize the coach or the teammate who doesn't pass the ball, or the club itself.

They also grow thanks to refereeing errors, the poor positioning of young opponents, the mistakes of their teammates, or the decisions of the coach or the club.

The important thing is to learn to be fully aware of our own mistakes, our own limitations, as well as the overwhelming presumption of being better than others, because that's what we've been told!

I was waiting for the right time to come, the time to renew our membership, to register the first team in the Serie C championship after last year's incredible journey thanks to our coach, the technical team, and the players. I was waiting for the right time to solidify our technical collaboration with other basketball clubs to foster the growth of our talent, excluding those who withdraw and attempt the usual shameful and offensive transfer campaign, thus undermining the sacrifices and time our coaches dedicate to those players they pettyly try to "grab". I was waiting for the possibility of establishing a sports club with Real Forio to at least share the logistical and organizational management with the first teams.

The reaffiliation and registration are a concrete fact, the collaboration with Isolaverde is well underway, and we briefly discussed the sports club with the President of Real Forio. I hope there will be opportunities to further explore and flesh out the possibilities for collaboration.

Next week, the usual public meeting of Forio Basket will take place, to share, as always, with anyone who wishes, our intentions, goals, and organization. This time, the organization will have to do without my unnecessary presence, but it will see the best technical and managerial skills committed to writing further memorable pages in the beautiful history of Forio Basket. It is my duty.

Obviously, I'll leave as soon as possible, but not until I'm certain that everything is in order and everyone is satisfied, including the fact that I'm stepping aside. It will be a good thing for Forio Basketball, which will no longer have to suffer discrimination from politics and business.

Thank you to all the athletes, coaches, managers, sponsors, and everyone who has made a fundamental contribution to the life of Forio Basket. Thank you to the parents who have placed their trust in Forio Basket, hoping to have given them back better children. But above all, I apologize for having abused everyone's patience, for having gone overboard with my usual outbursts, and thank you for putting up with them. I apologize for my organizational limitations and the sacrifices I have sometimes forced you to endure.

I don't regret a single second of my time dedicated to Forio Basket over the years, even though it's all been so costly, so much sacrifice for my family, so much time and energy taken away from them that we'll never be able to recover. And it's to them, above all, that I owe my apologies and, above all, my thanks!