At Loano kicked off today, Tuesday, Jan. 19, the #weplayfair social-media campaign designed as part of “Match Sport - Making amateur sports tolerant by eliminating racism and discrimination”, a European project that aims to improve the safety of cities by eliminating violence, racism and discrimination in sports to which the City of Loano has joined through the Erasmus+ Sport program. Leading the project is the European Forum for Urban Safety, a European network of 250 local authorities founded in Barcelona in 1987 and supported by the Council of Europe. The goal of the Fesu (Efus) network is to strengthen policies aimed at crime reduction and promote the role of local administrators within the same policies, national and European, through social prevention projects, anti-discrimination and human rights activities.
The initiative explores a particularly worrying aspect: the emergence and increase of phenomena of violence during amateur sports events and activities. “Unfortunately,” recalls Mayor Luigi Pignocca, "more and more often there are episodes of racism and xenophobia on the soccer fields (and not only) of the minor and amateur leagues, of violent behavior on the part of parents who attend their children's activities, and of forms of discrimination. In light of this situation, there is a strong need to develop tools to combat, train and raise awareness of these issues.".
In this sense, sports clubs can play a leading role in the implementation of the “Match Sport” project. This especially at Loano, which can count on as many as 3,500 athletes in a population of about 12,000 people. “Violence does not only affect professional sports and big events with a lot of media coverage, but it also occurs in amateur sports- stresses local police councillor Enrica Rocca -In this area, incidents are often related to provocations that incite hatred and discriminatory violence that come from other athletes, officials or even parents. This problem is all the more serious when it occurs among young people, who instead from sports should learn those values of respect, tolerance and equality proper to every good citizen.”.
“Amateur sports can encourage social change and inclusion among children, young people and their parents,” adds Sports Councillor Remo Zaccaria, "As the European City of Sport, we feel it is our duty to take an active role and promote initiatives aimed at reaffirming the educational and preventive role of sports practice. Hence our decision to join the project of the European Forum for Urban Security, whose primary objective is to analyze the phenomenon of violence (particularly discriminatory violence) and offer training and support to local authorities and sports clubs that wish to act against discriminatory violence with the support of parents, who often work as volunteers within the sports clubs themselves.".
In the first phase, the project will first of all feature local amateur sports associations, which will be involved in programs to counter and prevent discriminatory violence in amateur sports with the involvement of parent volunteers. For their part, local governments will be able to strengthen their local partnerships to improve monitoring of the phenomenon and gain knowledge through new methods and tools and with an integrated, multi-sectoral approach.
The objectives of the “Match Sport” project are several: first, to develop or strengthen programs to counter and prevent violence in amateur sports; this is to help local authorities learn more about violence and prevention strategies and empower local partners by providing them with appropriate and adequate tools to respond with an integrated and multi-sectoral approach to the problem, as they are often ill-equipped to deal with it; and last but not least, to examine the extent to which gender discrimination motivates violent incidents in amateur sports and whether it has an impact on volunteering.
This is done through some very specific actions: first, by outlining the “state of the art” of violence and discrimination in sport at the local level in different European countries; by creating a list of good practices regarding the experience of cities in dealing with issues of violence and discrimination in sport; by arranging create a training program for local authorities, sports organizations and volunteers and implementing pilot projects in all partner cities; and by sharing the results of the project during a sports festival in the context of the “European Week of Sport.”.
The goal of the #weplayfair campaign is to raise awareness of discrimination and violence among sportsmen and women and promote the actions carried out under the project through a series of targeted posters. The campaign is aimed primarily at actors in the field, sports professionals, amateur clubs, and anti-discrimination associations, but it also targets a wider audience and local institutions.
The “Match Sport” project is also joined by the Falcone Institute of Loano with its “Laboratory of Legality.” Students are involved in the activation of a permanent observatory of the phenomenon of violence at schools and sports associations through questionnaires and methodologies carried out with the collaboration of the University of Genoa Sudi.
Loano is a partner in the project along with the Local Authorities of Liege (BE), Lisbon (PT), Maranello (IT), Nea Propontida (GR),Valence (FR). Other organizations collaborating in the initiative include: Europaische Sportacademie Land Brandenburg (DE), Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti (IT), Portuguese Ministry of Internal Administration (PT).
Erasmus+ is the EU's program for education, training, youth and sport in Europe. With a budget of 14.7 billion euros, it will give more than 4 million Europeans the opportunity to study, train, gain experience and volunteer abroad. The Erasmus+ program offers opportunities not only for students. A synthesis of seven previous programs, it targets a broad spectrum of people and organizations. The Erasmus+ program is open to many organizations and individuals, although eligibility varies from action to action and country to country. Individuals can take part in many activities funded by the program, although in most cases they will have to do so through an organization participating in the program. The eligibility of individuals and organizations depends on the country in which they reside.
“Match Sport” is part of the “Security, Democracy and the City - Co-producing Urban Security Policies” project launched at the end of 2018 by the Loano municipal administration. It is a “community policing” project that aims to concretize the concepts of integrated security and urban safety.
