ROME, Sept 16: The head of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), Guido Rossi, has been drawn into a row about a conflict of interests after accepting a second job as president of the company that sponsors Serie A and Serie B.

Rossi's appointment on Friday as president of Telecom Italia threatens to derail the programme of reform he set in motion in the wake of the Serie A match-fixing scandal.

“The smooth running of football could be affected. I think the right thing to do would be to find a new president,” AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti was quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA.

Rossi has not said whether he intends to resign, but an FIGC statement on Saturday suggested he wanted to stay and was preparing a presentation to the Italian Olympic Committee that outlined the “reforms undertaken so far and the project of work for the next few weeks”.

Charged with cleaning up the murky world of Italian football, he oversaw the sports justice trials that ended with the relegation of Juventus to Serie B and points penalties against Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio.

—Reuters