On Tuesday 12 March 2024 the Italian National Table Football Team was received by the Minister for Sport and Youth Andrea Abodi in order to celebrate the recent successes of the Azzurri in this particular sporting discipline which in 2022, right at Roma, they graduated World champions, to then confirm itself further, in 2023 a Gibilterra, also winning the title of Champions of Europe.
The Italian delegation was made up of the captain of the national team, Saverio Bari, together with the individual World Champion, Luca Colangelo, and by the players of the National Open Luca Battista, Michael Caviglia, Matteo Ciccarelli and Filippo Cubeta. Also present, Marco Lambert, National Team Coach, Peter Ielapi, President of the Italian Table Football Sports Federation (FISCT), and Mauro Simonazzi, President of National Subbuteo Sector ofOrganization for Sports Education (OPES)), the Sports Promotion Body recognized by the CONI to which FISCT is affiliated.
“It was a pleasure to meet you today - he has declared the Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi - Your sport fully embodies the paragraph inserted last September 20th in Article 33 of the Constitution: "The Republic recognizes the educational, social, and psychological well-being-promoting value of sport in all its forms." Table football expresses the social value of football, of inclusion and aggregation, a timeless sport that deserves due recognition.
“I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Minister Abodi – he intended to declare the President of FISCT, Pietro Ielapi - for this historic meeting, aimed at celebrating the successes of our National team. His recognition makes us very proud and is combined with the satisfaction for the work done to date, both in purely sporting terms, thanks to the victories and performances of our splendid boys, and in organizational and promotional terms, proudly carrying forward the founding values of a competitive discipline that respects itself, such as loyalty, fairness, sportsmanship, together with healthy competition and the everlasting passion for table football. Minister Abodi's availability and attention towards our world will be a further spur to continue the growth path undertaken in recent years."
"National sporting excellences such as those present here today – he echoed Hon. Alessandro Amorese (Brothers of Italy), Group Leader of the Culture and Sport Commission of the Chamber of Deputies They must be celebrated and recognized appropriately. I deeply thank Minister Abodi for having organized this meeting and for his desire to celebrate these athletes. Table football is a very interesting sport that deserves to be properly promoted, given its many international successes and its widespread popularity throughout Italy. My sincere congratulations to these young people, yet another source of sporting pride for this nation.”
At the end of the meeting, the President of the OPES National Subbuteo Sector Italy donated to Minister Abodi a miniature reproduction (Subbuteo) of the national football team, while the managers of the Italian Table Football Sports Federation Those present wanted to pay homage to him with the national team shirt worn by the Azzurri during the 2022 World Cup and the 2023 European Cup and with a commemorative medal.
EDITORIAL TEAM
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