Tomorrow at 6pm the Livorno derby between Libertas and Pielle. The challenge between the top two in the class in Group A of Serie B Old Wild West. A city with the “double desire for A2”, underlines Tuttosport which dedicates a page this morning to tomorrow’s match. The two presidents are speaking, but also the president of FIP Toscana Maximum Pharaohs. «Livorno is ready to return. The derby is an extraordinary sporting spectacle that all of Italy envies us”, she said. «Serie A2 requires organizational structures, technical capabilities and financial possibilities that are very different from Serie B, but in recent years Libertas and Pielle have grown so much that they have now reached these potentials».
Roberto Consigli, president of Libertas. «It’s a very heartfelt match regardless of what’s at stake. The derby reflects the character of the people of Livorno, which is dichotomous, the expression of a city full of contrasts, contradictions, opposing values. It’s a tow. We want to win, even if our real goal is promotion to A2. Not only does basketball’s Livorno need Serie A, but the entire Italian basketball movement also needs the Livorno derby at the highest levels. In any case, for us, the project is more important than the immediate result. If the promotion fails this year, we will try again next year. Libertas has the ambitious goal of returning to the big leagues but also of building something capable of standing over time. We already have a large and first-rate youth sector. We have our own facilities and satellite companies. We are ready to grow, while also developing a social project, inserted into the city reality, aimed at young people and less wealthy neighborhoods.”
Francesco Farneti, president of Pielle. «In Livorno, basketball is a sport that involves and enthralls. Even in the darkest years, basketball schools have always had important numbers. Tradition is not lacking and neither is cheering, on both sides. It is obvious, therefore, that this match is very heartfelt, even if for the purposes of the ranking this time it is worth nothing. We want to win it and then prepare as best we can for the playoffs. Our project is increasingly coming to fruition and Cavalier Costa’s entry into the company is proof of this (he is the Genoese entrepreneur Giuseppe Costa of Costa Edutainment and Opera Laboratori, ed.). The project involves the development of the youth and women’s sectors, the latter already important, in addition to the conquest and maintenance of the top divisions by the men’s first team. We have relationships with many Livorno and Tuscan associations. There’s no way Pielle will stay in Serie B for long. In this category we are an anomaly in terms of number of spectators and takings. A city like Livorno cannot have the highest basketball expressions in the third category of the national championship.”
