“For four months our boys have been forced to play sports in a 50% gym”. The complaint comes from Luca Mastropietro, president of Us Acli Santa Sabina, a team that trains children in minivolley, middle school starter groups and two competitive volleyball groups in the gymnasium of the Liceo Barabino, in viale Orti Sauli in the center of Genoa. The building belongs to the Metropolitan City and also houses the Taekwondo company of master Pietro Fugazza.
It all started on 16 October 2022 when a radiator broke and caused flooding that ruined a portion of the parquet, at which point Città Metropolitana commissioned one of its affiliated companies to do the restoration, but since then the ordeal has begun for those who he uses the gym every day and, four months later, nothing has changed, because the work hasn’t started and the young volleyball players are forced to play sports using only half of the facility, with all the necessary difficulties.
President Mastropietro, who is also a municipal councilor in Lower Val Bisagno for the Democratic Party, explains a GenovaToday: “There is a lot of talk about youth policies and Genoa European capital of sport 2024, then we present ourselves with facilities like this. We no longer know what to say to our families and we are also losing members, we are ready to report to the authorities if one is not found solution as soon as possible. The repaired facility was supposed to be delivered at the end of January, but the work has yet to begin. Four months with a gym reduced in half were extremely difficult. The responsibility lies with those who do not intervene and those who observe without doing anything” .
“A few weeks after the flooding – Mastropietro reconstructs – some strips had been removed to let the substrate dry, then I was told that the company was thinking of redoing all the parquet, finally at the beginning of January that the ‘patch’ would be done in the damaged portion, which in the meantime has widened due to humidity. A month has now passed and a job that I believe can be done in a week has not even begun. As far as I know – says the president of ACLI Santa Sabina – Metropolitan City has already ordered the company to carry out the surgery and there would also be penalties, but we want clear answers, it is not possible to continue playing sports in these conditions. 259 boys and girls are paying the price. their families. It is not permissible”.