“The boys are back to playing football now the goal is to never stop”

Giovanni Messina, head of the Figc school sector, speaks “The members are 15,600 in recovery: in short, the ball hits the mark”

the interview

At the close of the first phase of the youth championships, we asked Dr. Messina, head of the youth and school sector, to take stock of the last few months.

Doctor Messina, several months have passed since we were talking about the restart of the youth sector, at this point it is natural to make an overall balance of this last period.

«Overall positive balance. This year we started with an activity called “Restart”, with the categories of Pulcini and Esordienti that had already started in September. This is to ensure that 8 to 12 year olds, who did not do enough activity last year, could take it up again this year. It was certainly a positive initiative, not easy for us in the Youth and School Sector to manage. As for the total number of members, what can you tell us? ».

In September we broke up with about ten thousand members …

«Here, the members are now just over 15,600. This means that, when there is an ordinary activity, the children get closer. Moderate optimism also supported by other numbers regarding members who, if in this period there are about 15,600, in the pre-pandemic seasons, they amounted to only one thousand more units than today “.

Young people who have been followed with various activities, including the Evolution Program, what else has been done to help the whole youth movement?

«We have restarted with the training, both for the managers of the basic activity, and for the instructors without qualifications. For both roles, we do these Grass Roots training courses, first aid level courses. We have done a total of four courses and now we will do another four, one per delegation. As regards the Evolution Program, a territorial development program, it is taking place regularly ».

Last time we talked about continuity: did the conclusion of this first phase satisfy this desire?

«Absolutely, in reality we are always bound by the rules but by being in the white or yellow zone we continue to maintain this continuity. We hope that the situation remains like this ».

A restart that involved everyone, what are the feelings that come from the families of the boys?

«The general idea is that everyone wanted to get back to normal as much as possible. The companies have been good at getting back into the game. Families also helped a lot in this regard. Parents who complained about the fact of the lockdown, felt concretely, with the need to return to social relations. The families were happy to return to what was once normal, with an effort, in my opinion successful, in favoring this continuity, despite the emergency ».

Do you think the Omicron variant could have an impact in some way in the coming months, also considering the increase in cases among young people?

“The risk is still present, the skill, once again, lies in being responsible”.

In conclusion, what do you hope for the next few months?

“There is a continuity that is significant now and we are experiencing something that is very similar to normal. The goal is to maintain this condition as much as possible and give continuity to the continuity itself “. –