“We are the city of Vittorio Alfieri, but the will is lost.”
Fabrizio Bittner, president of the Italian modern pentathlon federation, intervenes on the failure to build a new sports hall. An issue that has come back into vogue with the study of the 107 provinces’ aptitude for sport: Asti is in 86th place with just enough structures and rearguard positions on other indicators.
“Here we have created a reality thanks to Alice Sotero – says Bittner – but also a little to us managers, coaches: brought Asti to the world by participating in two Olympics ”
General situation characterized by immobility.
“We are firm because the local politics, transversal to the whole constitutional span – Bittner shortened – of sport is never interested in anything: no council, at least in the last 25/30 years, has ever set up a sports political line of or for the territory “.
According to the president of the Pentathlon Federation, the question concerns the entire political class of Asti: “Of which I was also a part on the sidelines – he maintains and I have always fought for sport, for everyone and in every place and institution. I stopped, it is useless, perhaps I was not able, perhaps there is no receptivity of the territory ». “Because the local sports movement – he stresses again – in various disciplines has always been fertile and productive, made up of enthusiasts who have damned themselves to create and produce sporting excellence, then when the environment as a whole is not receptive and does not give answers, moving forward becomes almost impossible and many have abandoned ». And move on to the analysis of sports facilities in the city. “It is useless to promote and create local sports realities, with a 50-year-old sports plant situation – he says – with maintenance neglected due to lack of resources, but a shortage due to a lack of political will to invest in this sector”.
And he refers to the resignations of the various councilors for sport. «Like Passarino with mayor Voglino and today Bovino. Both complained about the impossibility of working in a council that doesn’t care about sport ».
Then the direct experience: “Our small pentathlon reality went swimming in the pool in Canale (5,500 inhabitants) for a whole season, bringing 30-40 children with the relative inconveniences for 3-4 times a week – he says – because the administration of a city of 70,000 inhabitants was unable to support the manager and keep a swimming pool open, also guaranteeing a public service to citizens ».
What to do then? «Opening comparisons with local realities, recovering resources using the availabilities through the various PNRRs – concludes Bittner – using national managers like myself: they can act as facilitators for projects and relations with national sport; in short, to promote a sports policy for and for the territory. –