The 69-year-old Italian, who served as an ISSF vice-president for 20 years, won an acrimonious election on November 30, defeating Russian oligarch Vladimir Lisin by 136 votes to 127 at the ISSF General Assembly in the Egyptian resort Sharm El-Sheikh.

After returning from Egypt to his office in Rome, he spoke to insidethegames about his priorities for what he describes as a "new era" for the ISSF - and as far as Los Angeles 2028 in concerned, for Rossi it is all about Location, Location, Location…

"I know very well the situation ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games is very complicated," he said. 

"Soon we have a meeting with the International Olympic Committee [IOC]. Our goal is 2028."

That meeting is expected to take place sometime in the next few days.

"At the same time, we don’t forget Paris 2024, and I have just talked with the head of the French Shooting Federation.

"Co-operation will be greater. Only if we work all together will we save the future of shooting.

"I will do my best to make a good connection, first of all with the IOC, which needs good relations. We know that some matters of the LA Olympics are dangerous to us. But as you know I am also lucky, my name is Luciano - lucky.

"For Paris 2024 we will co-operate with the French Shooting Federation and the Organising Committee. We are put out from the capital - this will be the first time shooting is put out from the city of the Olympics.

"But now this is a final decision. I have talked with the French federation and said we cannot talk everything, this is OK.

"This is the reason that we are working for Los Angeles. These Games are very important to us.

"My first vice-president is an American six-times Olympic medallist Kimberly Rhode. In LA we will make a strong campaign together, we are working for a good chance for us in the Games without a big problem.

"Only if we go in the corner, that is dangerous for us. What they did in Paris is put shooting in the corner, 300 kilometres from the Olympic city in Chateauroux. Very bad. I told the French Federation that we are not happy, I am not happy, but now I respect the decision.

"Working for Los Angeles 2028 it is easy to say: 'We want, we want, we want this.' But how? We have to create the opportunity to have the Organising Committee, the IOC and of course our International Federations to speak to each other.

"Only this way can we become stronger. If we create a problem, it's normal that they put us in the corner. But - out of the Olympic city, no more. The biggest challenge for us is to make sure shooting takes place in the city of Los Angeles."

The place Rossi references for shooting at the 2028 Games is a temporary venue in the Valley Sports Park, located around 20 miles from the city centre in the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Center in the San Fernando Valley.

"There are many chances," Rossi said. "In Sharm at the General Assembly I talked with Kimberly and she spoke of this place close to Los Angeles.

"I hope that will be the best solution. But if there are better I am always open!

"Only if we co-operate will we receive the good attention. So we are working on the programme. We want to work with the Organising Committee to solve any problems. If we create a problem like we did for Paris, ha, they will put us in the corner!

"But in LA we represent ourselves, we do our best, we work together. We work together with the Organising Committee and the IOC with strong co-operation from our International Federations."

Paralympic issues are also at the forefront of Rossi's plans.

"We are working hard to integrate with the Paralympic shooters," he said. "It is one other goal that I have in my heart, the united capacity of Olympic and Paralympic shooting.

"Now they are too separate, with no connection. With our good relations, good connection - only if we are united we can become stronger."

Rossi's election victory - after he had lost narrowly to Lisin in the previous election - ended what had been a controversial four-year reign for the Russian as head of the world governing body.

Lisin refused to step down, even temporarily, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And shortly before the election in Egypt Oleg Volkov, the Ukrainian Shooting Federation (USF) President, called upon the IOC to prevent him from standing for re-election.

Volkov claimed, in a letter sent to IOC President Thomas Bach, that steel manufactured by Lisin’s company, Novolipetsk (NLMK), has been "used to conduct military operations on the territory of Ukraine and to kill Ukrainians."

Novolipetsk, the steel company owned by Lisin, is reportedly worth $25.4 billion (£21.2 billion/€24.6 billion).

The then ISSF secretary general, Russian-born Alexander Ratner, denied that Lisin’s company was involved in supplying materials to help Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

"NLMK does not work with the Russian military-industrial complex and therefore never supplied the mentioned Uralvagonzavod plant, and Russian operations of NLMK are not capable of producing heavy plate steel or steel with ballistic properties and focus solely on rolled strip steel for general civilian use," Ratner told insidethegames.

Rossi does not hold back in his criticism of the previous incumbent as President, and of the former secretary general.

"I won the second election - I should say we won - by teamwork, respect and experience," he said.

"We have written a very good programme that we will follow word for word. I know it is easy to write and to say and it is complicated to realise, but we will do it.

"Because around the world the shooters, the coaches, the referees, the juries and of course the Federations were waiting for the Russians.

"The power was in one hand and to take the decision any time what he wanted without any connection with the committee, or the federations, and so on. But it's OK. This is past. Now I am working for the next step and for respect.

"The general secretary wrote a letter against me before the election, published in different languages. Then at the General Assembly, after the vote, the general secretary and the President went out. They left. This is a true story - it is a lack of respect.

"I know the Russians are especially against me. I expect this, like it was four years ago, and I am ready. Now we are working for the future of shooting."

Of the four ISSF vice-presidents elected in Sharm El-Shaikh, two were women - Rhode and Catherine Fettell from Australia.

"It is very good that two of them are women," Rossi said. "It is what I want and we work more in this direction. Of course there are also many others with expertise around the world.

"Because of our great passion for the sport we have opened the doors and windows for the oxygen to come in to the federations."

Rossi makes it clear that he thinks of his "new era" in terms of restoring a culture he feels the previous leadership did not respect.

"They changed the culture," he said. "They destroyed our story, our culture, our philosophy, our respect. We are Europeans so we know that is what they do also to control the sport.

"The shooting family is very, very friendly, very loud. There is a special feeling between us. And this feeling was destroyed. Now it will be easy to re-establish it. But it is a new era and I need co-operation from all.

"We have sponsors that are ready to come to us because they realised that this is a time of change, and this was necessary.

"It is important to understand why all the companies, all the companies, were afraid about the future of shooting. They are professional. They realise that this direction is the wrong direction, and if we do that we lose the future.

"There are many matters to consider. People don’t know how we use rifle, pistol, shot gun. We are one of the biggest sports in the world, but people don’t understand the sport.

"So we have to realise that the communication will be completely different from the past, from this cold Russian style.

"Social media is going to be very important. We must invest it with professional expertise that will help all the federations.

"But we will establish ISSF TV because we don’t want the Organising Committees to pay very expensive rights from people that don't understand the expertise of shooting.

"As the former leadership team has already departed, the urgent priority is to set up new operations of the ISSF offices, including management of all matters related to the media."

One of the first things Rossi did as President was to engage Germany’s Willi Grill to the vacant position of ISSF secretary general.

"The morning after I got back to Rome after the General Assembly I was back working in my office, and rang Willi and he also was there in his office in Germany, already working," Rossi said. "We were very tired but already we were talking about the ISSF future.

"Willi is the most famous in shooting around the world. He was a German junior shooter, but then he moved into administration and was in charge, general director of ISSF, overseeing all the technical meetings.

"He is very well known and liked around the world. It is the reason I talk about the team. Willi is a guarantee for us. We need people with his expertise. Good people that we know will work hard.

"Already we think the feeling in shooting is really changed. When we were in Cairo for the competitions the spirit among the shooters and the coaches was unbelievable.

"Step by step there was connection with the delegations. This is very important.  A new era has started.

"We know that federations must have sustainability. And there must be equal gender. These things are all in my mind and we will make them happen.

"To help in this I have established the Academy which is working for new managers, coaches, new expertise for the future. During 20 years when I was vice-president it was one of my proposals."

Grill has his work cut out right now. As insidethegames reported on December 10 that, after being voted out of his position, Lisin had withdrawn his promise of financial support for the ISSF President's Cup in Cairo which carried a total prize pool of €792,000 (£681,000/$835,000).

The new management team was also struggling to regain control some of the organisation's official social media accounts, including Twitter.

"The athletes should not suffer," Grill told insidethegames.

"The situation that the Russian leadership left behind shows how much they cared about our sport.

"President Rossi will try to ensure that the athletes receive their money."

He added that efforts were being made to reclaim control of the social media channels.

Meanwhile, the cost of competition is another element that Rossi feels needs urgent redress.

"What I saw in Cairo on the last two days was fantastic. OK, you had the top shooters. But we respect all the shooters. And we don't forget the poor countries.

"We don't go in the direction that only the rich countries can compete. Many competitions are expensive and too long.

"Some competitions are more than 22, 23, 24 days. Many federations are poor. It is only special thanks to the IOC that gives $17million for the quarter of Tokyo. And we appreciate very much, and we say thanks.

"But do we want to organise smaller competitions? Yes of course. Our first goal we have is to respect the problem of the poorer federations.

"Competing internationally is a big cost. Effectively not more than five or six countries can go around the world in these competitions. The other 160 -where?

"It is a big majority that are poor federations that have no money. We have to reduce these expenses, we have to organise events closer to federations that need less travelling.

"It is easy to say but very complicated - but 100 per cent we have to do this.

"The problem of the cost of travelling to federations and organising committees, the expense of it, is a really dangerous matter.

"I try to talk with travel agencies, with the International Air Transport Association, to solve the problem. To make arriving in a country with a shotgun easier than it is now. You can imagine how many problems there are and how big the cost of this is. We will do our best for the opening of this season."