Gravina: “FIGC and the Holy See together to show the beautiful face of football”

Football as a union and brotherhood, to go beyond economic pincers and technical constraints. This is the vision that the president of the FIGC Gabriele Gravina has and that is why today he wanted to host the presentation of the commemorative jersey of the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the ASD Sport Association in the Vatican, whose first championship in the Holy Headquarters took place in March 1972.

the message

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“This is an opportunity to show the beautiful face of football, declining the sensitivity of our sport in the best possible way – said Gravina -. I am particularly happy, also because we are resuming a speech suspended in the meeting with the Holy Father at the inauguration. of the final phase of the European Championship. Then it went well, maybe we should have gone to get a special blessing before the playoffs… “. And laughs. Then he continues: “There is a planning linked to football and jokingly but not too much, we hoped for the Vatican to join Uefa, like San Marino”. Then the president returns serious: “Today’s message is that football has a unique language in its multidimensionality, in spite of the economic dimension that often leads to neglect that of cohesion and the ability of this sport to overcome borders”.

Social friendship

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The timing of the conference was marked by Don Dario Viganò, who underlined the now solid friendship between the FIGC and the Vatican, also talking about the link between the world of football and the Holy See: “Just think that on January 7, 1521 it was played with us the first Florentine football match in the presence of Pope Leo X “. Then the word was passed to Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Pope Francis’ vicar general for the Vatican City: “We are happy to be here, it is nice to be able to think of being in contact with the Italian national team. Fifty years is a significant time in life. , an evolution that forces us to think differently, overcoming ingenuity and insecurities, becoming a little more stable. For the Association, I think the time has come to be more aware of the importance of bringing work and sport together in the Vatican, a a combination that creates social friendship and fraternity. If we fail to do this, we do not win the match of a lifetime. I come from amateur football and I carry within the positivity of the experience of team play “.

Jerseys and projects

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Then the exchange of jerseys: for Gravina the yellow one from ASD Sport in the Vatican (they will be on sale in the Holy See and part of the proceeds will go to charity), for Cardinal Gambetti the blue one. The vice president of the Association, Nicola Vignola, then provided some more details on the activity of Sport in the Vatican: “The employees of the Holy See are part of it and since 2018 there is also a women’s team that is doing a great job and that is represented here by the team manager Susan Volpini. The championship sees 8 formations, the associates are 250-300. The team to beat? Probably the Baby Jesus … The cards? It happened that someone uttered blasphemous phrases and the commission that is always present on the Campo has disqualified the person concerned for the whole championship. Among other things, in addition to the points classification, there is a discipline classification that is valid in the event of a tie alongside direct matches “. And here Gravina breaks Gravina joking: “We would only be relegations! However, if you have any problems we will send you the Var …”. Not just football, however: work is being done for a basketball team and soon there will be a padel tournament. And on June 12, for the Family Day, a triangular project is planned to raise funds to renovate the recreational spaces of the little patients of the Bambin Gesù and give hospitality to the parents. Football beyond football.