Italian Olympic Committee (CONI), which runs all Italian sport, Thursday named deputy CONI head Luca Pancalli special commissioner of the Italian Soccer Federation (FIGC).

Luca Pancalli, 42, a former Paralympic Olympics swimming star who has been confined to a wheelchair since a showjumping accident when he was 17, takes over from Guido Rossi who resigned Monday after being named head of Telecom Italia.

CONI chief Gianni Petrucci said Pancalli, who is also head of the Italian Paralympic Committee, would work "in complete autonomy" and stressed that Italian Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri, a firm backer of Rossi, endorsed the choice.

Pancalli said that, as a former athlete who won seven gold medals and nine silvers in Paralympics from 1984 to 1996, he was " already training to win the race".

CONI also appointed two deputy commissioners: soccer legend Gigi Riva and legal expert Massimo Coccia.

Riva, who has been the leading Azzurri minder for 25 years, will work with the national teams while Coccia, who held the FIGC post for two days after Rossi's resignation, will be tasked with drafting new regulations.

Rossi quit without putting forward recommendations for reform, saying he had met opposition to his ideas.

The new FIGC team, which will be in place until February, will " work to build a season that is no longer dark but sunny, to restore hope," Pancalli said.

"Our one goal is to bring back serenity," said Pancalli, who stressed the importance of persuading former Clean Hands spearhead Francesco Saverio Borrelli to return to the FIGC inquiry office.

Borrelli quit as the FIGC's top investigator Wednesday, complaining of limited powers.

But Cocci, the two-day interim chief, prevailed on him to take a few days to mull over his decision in view of the appointment of the new commissioner.

Pancalli said his immediate priority would be to get Borrelli back.

(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2006)