‘Football for all’: FIGC and Special Olympics together for inclusion
The 24th edition of the Special Olympics European Football Week 2024 starts tomorrow
ROME – “May I win, but if I don’t succeed, may I try with all my strength”. The press conference to present the ‘Special Olympics European Football Week’, the European week dedicated to football, ended with the emotional oath of the Special Olympics athlete. unified, created with the support of UEFA and the patronage of FIGC, Lega Serie A and Lega Serie B.
The event was hosted today in the prestigious ‘Sala Paolo Rossi’ of the Italian Federazione Giuoco Calcio, in the presence of president Gabriele Gravina.
< /figure>
Now in its XXIV edition, the ‘Special Olympics European Football Week 2024’ has its roots in the involvement, as well as of the Special Olympics Teams spread throughout the national territory, of pupils and students of schools of all levels, with the aim of fostering a culture of respect in which to educate especially the young generations.
THE NUMBERS
From tomorrow, Saturday 25 May, to 2 June, around 45 thousand athletes with and without intellectual disabilities will be involved in over 45 European countries, through events and activities dedicated to football with the aim of creating new sporting opportunities for athletes at all skill levels. This year’s theme is ‘Football for All’, football for all: an opportunity to spread, through sport, a culture of inclusion that educates understanding and to the valorisation of diversity in all its broadest expressions.
“We are happy – said the president of the FIGC, Gabriele Gravina – that the appointment with the European Football Week of Special Olympics and that the presentation will be made once again in the FIGC, as a seal of the support and collaboration between the Federation and this splendid reality has contributed in Italy to the creation of important social and sporting opportunities for people with disabilities, and the FIGC is doing the same”.
“In 1981 – added the president of the board of directors of the Paralympic and Experimental Football Division, Franco Carraro– I discovered that, for people who have problems, sport it is the key to improving one’s life. I thank the entire FIGC structure for the proactivity with which it works on these issues. The satisfaction I have on a personal level is that everyone, from the FIGC on down, does their utmost in aid of Paralympic football“.
The presentation event was also attended by the FIGC general secretary, Marco Brunelli, the head of the Paralympic and Experimental Football Division, Giovanni Sacripante, and the head of Institutional Initiatives , Social Responsibility and Special Projects FIGC and member of the Special Olympics Italia board, Benedetta Geronzi.
In Italy, 8,406 students from 108 schools in 14 regions will participate. There are 788 Italian athletes who will take to the field in the 14 stages organized in 7 regions. Among them, the nineteen-year-old Vasco Pitotti from Rieti, who spoke at the FIGC presentation: “Sport – he said – helped me to understand team play, to work with the group and to socialise”.
The European Week program also includes the finals of theSpecial Football, the unified football tournamentwhich takes place from January to May to give athletes the opportunity to compete continuously throughout the year during the stages organized in the three areas north-east, north-west and central-south of the country.
Particularly exciting was the moment of delivery of the team photo to president Gravina by the unified Italian futsal delegation, winner of the medal gold at the Special Olympics World Games Berlin 2023.
The athletes Antonello Carnassale, Alessandro Gabrielli, Giovanni Rufo, Marco Sorrentino, Leonardo Vellucci and Riccardo Racis, together with the coaches Andrea Siddi and Massimo Micci, delivered the frame on behalf of the team that followed the exploits of the Italian national team at the Championships of the 2006 World Cup.
“It’s nice to be here in the FIGC. Reliving all this with you is wonderful – the words of Antonello Carnassale, Special Olympics athlete– so many emotions, beyond the gold medal Our concept of sport: take to the field with adrenaline and return home with new perspectives. In Berlin we were superheroes and when we returned to Italy there was the fear of separating from our athlete friends, but Special Olympics has always helped us in our life journey”.
“Without Special Olympics – commented enthusiastically Riccardo Racis, Special Olympics partner athlete – I would not have experienced all of this but, above all, those who worked every day to compete and play, giving their all, even without reaching high goals.”
The founder and deputy vice-president of Special Olympics Italy, Alessandro Palazzotti, recalled that “when I saw Eunice Kennedy for the first time it opened my eyes to the number of people with disabilities who would should and could play sport in Italy. The task of sport is to change society, not just to exercise a discipline. The fact that FIGC is traveling with us and with the Paralympic Committee is fundamental. Thank you to the entire world of football which is raising awareness of certain issues in an absolute way”.
Finally, a space was dedicated to the delivery of a commemorative plaque to the #Big4Special Valerio Bernabò and Danilo Contaldo, who together with Martin Castrogiovanni and Ruben Bondi participated in the last Rome Marathon, covering the 42 km and 195 meters in a relay alongside the Special Olympics athletes. Together they promoted a fundraising campaign in support of the ‘Rome inclusive city’ project.
The Special Olympics European Fooball Week 2024 is made possible thanks to the contribution of Wurth. The 2024 Special Football Tournament is created thanks to the contribution of Cisalfa Group.