Today, in the Hall of Honor, the President of CONI, Giovanni Malagò, and the Minister of Labor and Social Policies, Giuliano Poletti, presented the renewal of the program for the promotion of integration policies through sport. The agreement was conceived in 2014, its goal being to develop a synergistic action aimed at creating activities to facilitate the integration of the foreign population into the economic, social and cultural panorama of the country, while opposing all forms of intolerance and racial discrimination. The 2015 project introduces three new areas: Sport Citizenship – which aims to combat the factors that separate young Italian citizens and people with a migratory background in the context of accessing and practicing sport -, an educational campaign aimed at schools and the spreading of "best practices".

The General Secretary of CONI, Roberto Fabbricini, the General Director for Immigration of the Ministry of Labor, Natale Forlani, the Head of Strategy and Social Responsibility of CONI, Teresa Zompetti, and Diana Bianchedi, a member of the Scientific Committee, also attended the press conference in the CONI Hall of Honor.

Malagò emphasized the Italian sporting community’s pride in the renewal of the agreement. "This project is very close to our hearts. We commit ourselves to it. The minister Poletti also agrees with our objectives. It is all about integration, through which we want to remove any obstacles to transform our dream of sport citizenship into a legislative reality. We do not want to penalize ourselves nor change the terms but we want to exploit this path, with the aid of the Ministry, to achieve extraordinary results in the social field".

Minister Poletti also stressed this concept and its importance. "Our country does not like to make evaluations, but in this case I would say that we have taken the first steps in this integration project, and we want it to grow. We must be fully aware of the fact that the health of a community is linked to the social wellbeing of each of its citizens. To do anything, you first have to remove the obstacles. That is the right way. Our commitment is to improve the agreement, by including the idea that sport is one of the keys to community building, and to create tools that develop and anticipate legislative action in this regard".

Teresa Zompetti, Head of Social Responsibility at CONI, outlined the contents of the renewed program. "To bring about a cultural change we need to develop a process based on the principles of the manifesto drawn up last year, which is itself based on the principle of sport citizenship. We would like this principle to become a proposal through the recognition of the uniqueness of our movement. To do this, we need to remove the differentiating factors among Italian and foreign young people, promote the educational campaign aimed at primary schools and gather the best practices of the various bodies on the theme of integration and sport".

Natale Forlani, General Director for Immigration of the Ministry of Labor, recalled the genesis of the project. "It is an initiative created to improve integration and also to fight racism in sport. Today, we consolidate this purpose and we raise the idea of forging a strong identity through the creation of a community: in this regard, sport can become a model. In Italy, there are about a million young foreigners, half of whom were born in our country. We can work on a formidable basis, and the kids of the second generation are perfect testimonials in that respect".

Diana Bianchedi praised the idea of sport citizenship as "the key step for more effective social integration, because in every team recognition is based on the achievement of a goal. It is a way to remove all differences." During the conference, various athletes also gave witness to this concept: Valentina Diouf (Volleyball), and 4 other representatives of athletics, José Bencosme de Leon (400m hurdles), Ivan Mach Di Palmstein (110m hurdles), Jean Jacques Nkouloukidi (Racewalking) and Kevin Ojiaku (Long jump), explained the important role of sport in "breaking down all barriers with brotherhood and loyalty." The most beautiful manifesto of integration in the name of competitive movement.