Serie A, President Casini: “Violence against women and gender quotas, constant commitment”

During the second day of the Festival of the Serie A in Parma, the President of the Serie A League, Lorenzo Casini, reiterated the importance of initiatives against violence against women and in favor of gender quotas in the world of football.

“This year, in addition to the 'A red for violence' campaign, we have dared more, having all the team captains read a message. If men are not the first to commit to certain things, the risk is that it will remain an issue managed only by women and that the message will not get through correctly.”

Casini highlighted how the most effective initiative was to organize the Sunday campaigns with a coordinated action. “Now, more than a year in advance, the campaigns that will be promoted in the fields week after week are being scheduled,” has explained.

Regarding gender quotas, Casini highlighted the negative impact of the pandemic. “The pandemic has made the situation worse because what we experienced was a step backwards from certain dynamics. Between lockdowns and closed schools, we have returned to a mistaken logic according to which certain tasks were only women's tasks,” said the President.

However, he also reported some positive progress, citing examples such as the presence of a female prime minister and a female president of the Constitutional Court. “This is a much broader problem than identifying the ruling class.” Another central theme of Casini's speech was sustainability in football.

"With UEFA we have organized a sustainability project that will be applied starting from the European Championship in Germany, to be able to measure the environmental impact. We need to have the data to understand how to intervene, regarding transportation, energy consumption, the type of fuel used for the generator and other factors," he explained. Casini also highlighted the experiment conducted on the occasion of the Coppa Italia final, following the 'road to zero' line. “Studies tell us that 40% of the pollution caused by a football match comes from transport,” he concluded.