Porto Torres: sports champions on the pitch against bullying

When kicks are not only given to the ball but are directed against violence and abuse and sport becomes a weapon to prevent the phenomenon of bullying.

It is the sporting world, in particular football but also that of boxing, which yesterday, Saturday 29 June, met in Porto Torres to send a strong and clear message and share the values of the beautiful game.

There was the champion Gianfranco Zola , former professional players such as Gianfranco Matteoli, Gianluca Festa, Vittorio Pusceddu, Michele Fini, Antonio Langella, Gianluca Hervatin, Marco Sanna and Andrea Bagnoli .

The sporting-benefit event "A kick to bullying", promoted by the cultural sports association "Gianni Fresu", spoke to young people and adults, but above all to sports operators and families, so that they know how to grasp the signs of distress that appear in those who are victims of bullying .

An initiative born from an idea by Andrea Marongiu, Davide Curreli and Vivaldo Romeo Rais, and supported in the technical-logistic-organizational direction by Marco Pireddu, Salvatore Fresu and Gennaro Longobardi creator of Miracle of Christmas.

With a conference presenting the topic in the Filippo Canu room, the sports journalist Vittorio Sanna spoke with guests and experts, such as Riccardo Pazzona (sports psychologist), Mario Pireddu (professor at the University of Tuscia) who addressed the topic of Cyberbullying, Salvatore Erittu (Italian boxing champion) and the mayor Massimo Mulas, who discussed with the young people present, also collecting testimonies from numerous former professional footballers and expert sports managers on the role of sport in combating bullying.

«These moments like today's – said the mayor – serve to guide young and old people to know how to manage their mistakes and overcome difficulties ».

For the psychologist Riccardo Pazzona, «we talk about bullying when there are abusive behaviors, which lead to psychological or physical violence, actions to be condemned and reported. We become bullies and we are often the ones who encourage wrong and reprehensible behavior. Sport is a very powerful medium, from every point of view and it is up to us to exploit it in the most appropriate and functional way, which is why I believe a cultural reform is necessary that starts with us adults."

Healthy sporting activity also promotes the child and adolescent's ability to manage themselves independently from their parents, to communicate with adults and peers, to accept others who are different from themselves, to experience a sense of success and to learn the concept of victory and defeat. The latter is not a failure but is an incentive to understand where you go wrong and therefore do better in subsequent performances. This is the message launched by the boxing champion Erittu, as a bully and as a bullied. « I think that even the bully needs to be listened to to understand the nature of his behavior», underlined Erittu «this also happened to me who received a rigid education, where physical violence prevailed over verbal communication, and this entailed an outburst of equal violence. What saved me was Alberto Mura, a master of sport and life, who gave me a turning point in my life, which allowed me to achieve many excellent results over the course of my career."

And if bullying is a plague to be fought in school classrooms, it happens that it can move into the digital field . Thus many young people become the target of ridicule and insults visible to members of the entire group, photographed in embarrassing moments or poor performances and teased. «Usually people talk about young people spoiled by the prejudice of adults», explains Mario Pireddu «who often divert responsibility onto the platform by attributing it to technology, while there is first of all a human responsibility, of a cultural and socio-economic nature much broader that affects people's mentality. The data on basic skills show us that those in their 40s, 50s and 60s have problems more than young people who have problems to a lesser extent . From young people there are requests that adults struggle to recognise."

In front of an audience made up of former professional footballers, the police also play a fundamental role in the fight against this phenomenon. For the former Porto Torres midfielder, Andrea Bagnoli , born in 1967, who played for various teams in the B and C series. «When you receive an invitation to these initiatives you must always participate, especially when you have an attachment to the city, like me who have been linked to Porto Torres for 40 years, - he declared - and this theme which has evolved in a negative sense over the years, helps us to reflect on how the contribution of each of us is fundamental. We are all addicted to some objects such as cell phones that steal important values and hours of our life." The day of sport and lessons ended at the municipal field of Campanedda for a football quadrangular which saw the Giovanissimi and Pupils categories of Porto Torres Calcio, the amateurs of the Seleçao, a representative of parents together with former professional footballers compete in a playful way. , including Gianfranco Zola .

In the evening there will also be a gala dinner at the Villa Noce restaurant , a moment of strong social character for a charity collection whose proceeds will go to the Gianni Fresu Association and will be used for charitable purposes and to resolve the social problems present in the city of Porto Torres .

Among the many prizes offered by the organization are several autographed Cagliari Calcio shirts, the historic Cagliari Calcio shirt and a ball with the original signature of the legend Gigi Riva.