Naples, Maddaloni: Municipality asks us unreasonable figures for Judo Club gym

“18 years ago I didn’t sign any contract, just a piece of paper written by hand.”

Gianni Maddaloni, a judo master who built a gym in Scampia in 2005 with the aim of allowing the neighborhood's residents to practice sports and getting as many people as possible off the streets, is very worried.

Now, however, the gym's business is at risk of closure due to large sums of money owed to the Municipality of Naples: 380.574,70 euros of unpaid monthly payments relating to rent and/or occupation allowances and 1.900 euros for the monthly rent of the facility.

Gianni Maddaloni will turn 67 in September, the same month the gym will celebrate its coming of age. “The journey of the Star Judo Club Napoli began 18 years ago – he tells the Dire agency – when the gym was handed over to me without signing any type of contract: just a piece of paper written by hand by the company in charge of the work but the Municipality did not make me sign any type of contract. Among other things, in these years I have never received bills. And for 13 years I was able to allow the residents of the Scampia neighborhood to practice sports for free. In fact, I thank the Municipality, managed at the time by Rosa Russo Iervolino”.

Gianni Maddaloni explains that he did everything he thought was right for his neighborhood.

“I turned a municipal property into a common good. At the time there was a feud, criminals killed each other, and together with other associations this real lifeline for young people was born. Until 2018 I had no contact with the administration. Luigi de Magistris also intervened, promising to resolve everything before his mandate expired. We have been receiving this bill for 1.900 euros for four years and, in reality, nothing has been fixed”.

Now the story of the Star Judo Club Napoli gym is entirely in the hands of the mayor of the Campania capital, Gaetano Manfredi. "I have a lot of faith in him and his entire team. The mayor is a person with a certain culture. Tomorrow I have an appointment with a person he trusts and I hope that the word end will be written next to this story."

“To Mayor Manfredi - adds - I ask you to continue to let me do what I am doing for my people and to help me take off my shoulders an economic burden that I cannot bear. I cannot afford to pay about two thousand euros a month and in addition to 380 thousand euros of outstanding rent balance, it is impossible. On the other hand, the monthly income is about 1.500 euros and with this amount I can pay the bills for water, electricity and gas. Those who can afford it, about 70 people out of a total of 150, pay a symbolic amount of 20 euros. All those who, however, cannot pay, have free access to the gym where they take judo, weights and dance courses. For me, however, it is enough that people are happy, that they are happy to be able to practice sports”.

“In our territory – Gianni Maddaloni then wanted to inform – social services call me when there are difficult kids, I have contacts with the ASL, with the juvenile court and with adult prisoners thanks to the Uepe, the surveillance magistrate who sends us the kids to carry out a re-education service. Kids who, instead of staying in prison, play sports in our gym and are, in this way, re-educated. In 12 years we have welcomed hundreds of prisoners”.

There is no lack of collaboration with schools. "A few days ago I was entrusted with a boy with a particularly difficult character, who had outbursts of anger: sport really helped to calm him down and make him understand the importance of respecting the rules. We also take care of many small children who have no parents or whose father is in prison."

The most famous judo master of Scampia, father of champions Pino, gold medalist at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and Laura, 13-time Italian champion, truly leaves no one behind.

“Since January of this year – concludes- those over 60 do not pay to enter our gym. It is a way to encourage these people to do physical activity, rather than staying at home to get lazy”.