Sport, music, folklore, but above all international solidarity.
These are the themes that accompanied the presentation of the 24th edition of the “ Mundialido
”, the football tournament reserved for teams made up entirely of immigrants
, in the CONI Hall of Honor at the Foro Italico .
The competition, organized and managed by Club Italia Eventi, is a cultural mediation project that aims to make the various immigrant communities present in the Lazio region dialogue and coexist with each other.
At the inaugural event of the tournament, in which the groups were also drawn, Senator
Claudio Barbaro
, president of the Italian Sports and Social Associations that collaborate in the initiative, and
Fabio Spadaccia intervened
, Councilor for Sport of the V Municipality of Rome Capital.
Among those present also ambassadors and diplomatic delegations of the countries represented, as well as personalities from sport and entertainment.
The first match will be played on Sunday at 6 pm in the Fiorentini Stadium, at the Parco dei caduti di Marcinelle.
Reigning champion
Morocco
will take the field and face the Ukrainian delegation.
Already from 10 in the morning, however, it will be possible to attend the parade of the participating teams and many other events.
The six groups will anticipate the knockout phase which begins on June 16.
The final will be played "on 29 June, the feast of the patron saints of Rome Peter and Paul, also at the Fiorentini stadium, in the La Rustica area, an area of the capital that has always been a crossroads for resident foreign communities", explains Eugenio Marchina, patron of the event and president of Club Italia.
“The initiative contributes to fostering common values and behaviors, guaranteeing foreigners equal opportunities and the possibility of participating in the social life of Rome and Lazio.
In a socio-cultural reality increasingly reaching out towards a multi-ethnic coexistence - continues Marchina -, the value represented by the Mundialido for the purposes of social integration and aggregation is evident.
Sport in general, and especially football, is confirmed
as an essential vehicle for involving people in welcome and integration paths
;
as well as, in the current historical period, an instrument of enormous importance in the fight against discrimination and social exclusion ".
For this reason, "even if the Russian team had managed to organize themselves - Marchina points out - we would have had no problems getting them to play".