Meeting of sport ministers, Malagò’s intervention. “Fair play to be strengthened”.
CONI President Giovanni Malagò has intervened this morning at the Farnesina Palace in a debate about fair play at competitive and financial level taking place during an informal meeting between European sport ministers, organized in occasion of the Italian Presidency semester of the European Union Council.
Malagò has discussed about the importance of the issue with EUFA President Michel Platini attending. “Financial fair play should be strengthened at an European level, because this is an effort for justice and equality. Europe has shown in the course of the decades to be able to overcome a lot of obstacles and to be able to obtain great success, this can and must be done. A marathon is not a marathon if doping is involved, a football match is not a match if fraud is involved. Sport is an instrument of social inclusion and of education. Introducing young people to physical activity and to sport culture provides not only good health but communicates knowledge and abilities. Sport world is made of moral and ethical values and our task is to do all that is possible so that people can follow these values. A new era must start so that the heritage of great events, as well as the benefits for the country and its citizens who are hosting them, would not be just a variable but a certainty. There is no time left to waste resources and to put pressure on our local communities. At the core there must be economic sustainability. This is a mantra that I always repeat. As CONI President, I cannot help urging partnerships with private parties.”
The works of the informal meeting started yesterday with a debate on sport education, cohesion and integration, and how at an European level it is possible to maximize the effects of sport against social exclusion. Italy was represented by Graziano Del Rio, under-secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office with mandate for sport. Amongst those attending, also Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissary for Education, Multilinguism, Culture, Sport and Youth.