Lando Ferretti

Lando Ferretti was an Italian journalist, politician, and sports official. Born into a rich family as an only son, after studying law and letters at the University of Pisa, he became a journalist with La Gazzetta dello Sport where he was deputy director from 1919-24 in one of the most turbulent periods in the life of the daily newspaper. He later worked with Secolo (1924-26) and then Corriere della Sera (1927-28).

Ferretti was made a deputy of the Italian Kingdom from 1924-40 with the P.N.F. (National Fascist Party) and in December 1925 took over the presidency of CONI (Italian Olympic Committee). His first charge was to send a strong team to the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. From 1926 Ferretti was Commissioner of the FIGC (Italian Football Federation) where he introduced the First National League. On 17 September 1928 he was promoted by Mussolini to head the official press office, a role in which he expanded state censorship.

Ferretti fiercely opposed the alliance with Hitler and his racial laws, and in 1939 he was expelled from the PNF. After a brief period in France where he was hosted by the elderly socialist mayor of Lyon, Edouard Herriot, he was called back to Italy after the start of World War II under penalty of desertion, and given the rank of colonel. After the armistice of 8 September 1943, he joined the Italian Social Republic (Salò Republic) and in the difficult days of April 1945 he was helped in Milano by Giuseppe Corbari, the former secretary of CONI in the 1930s.

After the war, Ferretti again took part in politics, joining the M.S.I. (Movimento Sociale Italiano), a right-wing party that supported Fascist principles. He was a Senator of the Republic from 1953-68 and during this period he was a member of the Organizing Committee of the Roma Olympic Games. In these years he abandoned his former militant journalism and wrote many books like Lo Sport (1949) and three years later he published Olimpiadi, a historical essay about the Olympic Games. In 2005 the journalists Fausto Pettinelli and Giampaolo Grassi wrote a study about Ferretti’s activities during Fascism entitled Lando Ferretti, il giornalista di Mussolini.

Olimpiadi (776 B.C. - 1952 A.D.) was also the book which Ferretti submitted for the 1952 Art Exhibition. It contains 31 illustrations and was published with 269 pages by Garzanti in Milan. Later, extended versions were published, covering the games until 1960.