9/3/2007

Football - a bad pyramid Interview UISP president

News from UISP Italy - Football in Italy

“Football is a bad pyramid” says UISP President Filippo Fossati at radio interview RAI 1, Italy.

“The main problem is that football is a bad pyramidal system and the negative features of the vertex influence all the basis”. According to Filippo Fossati the virtuous link between the adult football and the young once is broken since several years, for this reason the violence is spreading among the underage people.

 

“Most of the thousands of kids playing football make a joyful time – Fossati explains – despite this football is very violent”.  Overall there is too much competition among young players: “After a few of matches starts the selection between good and bad players, between who can be an investment for the club and whom not”.

There is a very high grade of tension among kids to stay in the group with some chance of success. “There are contract also for the 12 or 13 years old players, and clubs give them awards like scooters, there is a very premature mechanism of specialization, financing and selection of the sport event. For a kid is a matter to manage wins and failures, both in sport and in life. All kids up to eleven years old have to play, good or not!” More, there is an educative question, to build in the primary school: “there is not a body education, we have to insert it in the formative background of children and kids”.

The last ingredient of the recipe suggested by Uisp president is to educate operators. “We can’t continue with this rough-and-ready technique, referees and coaches of young teams are voluntary. We need to take this important resource and to move on pedagogic and psycho-social skills” using – for example – the funds of TV rights: “To take off resources from rich football to give them to the juvenile once is an investment due to operators and to encourage the game for all”.

The Uisp care for a different football is proved by “Facciamo un altro calcio” (Let’s do another kind of football), a campaign launched last year in several Italian towns. An activity that shows its actuality receiving the attention of media: on February the 26th the Radio1 Rai show News Generation” (a radio journal for youth) told about it. During the transmission have been listened the voices of children coming from Trento and Capo D’Orlando, two of the towns involved. They told about their experiences and the way to play a funny football far from rankings and championships.