Comparison, reflection, passion, but also fun. In L’Aquila, women’s youth football is once again the protagonist on the final day of the “Play with Us, let’s team up” project, an 8-a-side football tournament promoted by the LND Abruzzo, in synergy with the Youth and School Sector and the Regional School Office, aimed at students of Abruzzo schools. The winning teams of the district and provincial phases, which brought over 450 girls from lower and upper secondary schools onto the field, took to the green rectangle for the regional finals at the Gran Sasso d’Italia stadium in L’Aquila.
But first, they all met together, with the sporting and political institutions at the ANCE Auditorium for the annual conference “Women’s football, for us a question of rights”, moderated by the journalist Eleonora Falci and with many guests and speakers from the sporting and scholastic world.
Laura Tinari, president of the Women’s Serie B Division and head of LND Abruzzo women’s football, addressing the young people present in the room directly: “The future of our sport comes from the feet and dreams of you young people. It is to you that we have the duty to give the tools so that you can cultivate your passion; It is you who we must give equal opportunities to realize your desires and ours to see you and this movement grow”.
The president of the LND Abruzzo regional committee, Ezio Memmo: “The ball doesn’t pose the problem of who kicks it, their gender or their skin color. The ball is always the same, like when a child kicks it, in his total freedom and carefreeness. The message for you, girls, is this: the people who work for football put their time at your disposal, the most precious resource there is today.”
The president of the National Amateur League, Giancarlo Fir: “Today we talk about rights. The problem of the affirmation of women’s football is not so much the law, but the effectiveness of the law, as happens with the right to work, for example. Sport entered the Constitution only in 2023, 65 years after the entry into force of the Constitution itself”.
Antonello Passing, coordinator of Motor, Physical and Sports Education of the regional school office for Abruzzo, underlined the importance of the school-sport combination in the growth of future generations: “I am increasingly convinced that school and sport are close to each other and must walk side by side flank. We are the only Italian region, in the scholastic world, to have promoted a project on football this year”.
A warm applause opened the conversation with the Serie B players, Sofia Colombo (Lazio Women) and Marika Massimino (Ternana Women). Concluding the long-awaited speech was Nazzarena Grilli, coach of the National Women’s Under 23 team, who spoke about the beauty of practicing sport: “It was an important part of my life, as a player and then as a coach. She allowed me to meet many people and grow. Play football? I always thought it was a totally natural thing, that I was entitled to it. And then it became my job, sometimes I even got up at 5 in the morning to go to training.”
In the afternoon everyone at the Gran Sasso d’Italia Stadium for the grand finale of the interscholastic tournament, where semi-finals and finals were characterized by dynamism, fast pace and heart. Awards ceremony on the pitch in the presence of all the sporting and institutional authorities involved in the project.
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‘Play with us, let’s be a team’: the conference on women’s football in L’Aquila
