Football, as we know, is the most popular sport in the world. But maybe it’s not the most inclusive. Well-founded discrimination about sexual orientation or gender identity it is moreover a problem rooted in the world of sport as a whole, and football, despite its inclusive origins, is no exception. For this reality how Open Milano ASDwho works in the area every day for return the ball to its universal vocation, they are fundamental. Because initiatives like the one hosted by the Polisportiva – which it organizes in the Lombardy capital “The Football Tournament Against Discrimination of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation” to “create a safe and non-judgmental space for all participants, promoting equality in access to sport and mental and physical well-being through physical activity” – they return cleated shoes and leather football also to those who have not felt accepted and protected in other sporting environments.
Hosting the Open throughout the year is the social sports center Minerva Milana school of football for women and for children with disabilities. Between ongoing projects and awareness initiatives, Open and Minerva are committed to creating safe sports gathering spaces: “Frompay attention to languageall’use of the Alias profile instead of documents, the guarantee of changing rooms and specifically organized time and play methods, our managers are all prepared to guarantee the needs of every marginalized category“, he tells Ilfattoquotidiano.it Riccardo Pappalardo, president of Open. “There are still many stereotypes in football, in the common imagination there are still many who believe that it is a sport ‘only for men’, but our reality shows that something else is moving: 30 teams coming not only from the Milan area but from all over Italy, the support of important institutionsincluding the Municipality 5 of Milan, the CONI Lombardy Regional Committee, UISP Lombardia and UISP Milan and Arcigay Sport, and the feedback from our players demonstrate that the topic is important and heartfelt”.
The event will take place on March 23rd from 10am to 6pm at the Cappelli Sports Center in Piazza Caduti del Lavoro 5 and will welcome 30 teams coming not only from the Milan area but from all over Italy. The tournament, divided into three categories of competitions, offers a platform open to all people, regardless of sex and gender identity and regardless of experience level. Categories include “Sports Cup for All, Basic Level”, “Milan Open Cup, Intermediate Level” and “Lombardy Cup, Advanced Level”. Each category-based competition will have two groups whose matches will take place in parallel on 6 fields. The final stages will include not only the classic challenge between the teams that have reached the end, but also the challenge between the bottom and an intermediate challenge, with the sole aim of making the sporting day stimulating even after possible defeats. They will also be present information points managed by different organisationsincluding SGS Sport for All Genders and Sexualities, GayMinOut, CIG Arcigay Milano, Arcigay Sport, MiX International Festival of LGBTQ+ Cinema and Queer Culture, Progetto Tukiki (sports promotion for people with intellectual disabilities) and Pride Sport Milano.
Se I’ll give you Qatarthe 2023 tournament, was intended to be a response to the negative example given by the men’s football World Cup, this year’s tournament was born instead from the premise of underlining how many realities and how many people, over the last year, have joined the association’s projects, and how strong and widespread a new sensitivity now is: “This is why the name has changed, it is no longer a response and criticism to the current situation, but proof that another sensitivity and another attention already exist”, explains Pappalardo. “This is also demonstrated by the ongoing projects and the membership of ACET, the Association for transgenre culture and ethics, with which aceTeam, the first five-a-side football team made up of trans and non-binary people in Italy”. Open is a social project, in which sport returns to exist a tool of inclusion and cohesion, participation and openness: “After each match, there is a moment of dialogue between the players, both to understand and deal with any critical sporting events, and to allow the players to get to know each other and compare notes. To recognize ourselves not based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but for what we are and do”.