Madam President,<\/p>\n
Excellencies,<\/p>\n
Dear friends,<\/p>\n
Italy is proud to join the Co-Chairs of the Group of Friends of Football \u2014 Bahrain, Libya and Tajikistan \u2014 and all co-sponsoring Member States in celebrating this World Football Day.<\/p>\n
Football is one of the most universal languages in the world. It crosses borders, cultures and generations, creating connections where politics or geography sometimes create distance. This is why Italy considers football, and sport more broadly, not only as a human passion, but as a powerful instrument for peace, dialogue and mutual understanding among peoples.<\/p>\n
This conviction is at the very core of Italy\u2019s engagement at the United Nations. Just last November, this General Assembly adopted by consensus the Resolution on the Olympic Truce for the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games, co-sponsored by 165 Member States.<\/p>\n
That overwhelming support sent a clear message: even in a fragmented world, sport remains a rare space where humanity can still come together.<\/p>\n
It is in this spirit that Italy is preparing, together with T\u00fcrkiye, to co-host UEFA EURO 2032. We see major football events not only as competitions, but as platforms for cooperation, people-to-people diplomacy and long-term partnerships among countries, institutions and communities.<\/p>\n
The same spirit guides our work on the ground. Through the “RETE! Refugee Teams” programme, launched by the Italian Football Federation in 2015, more than 10,000 refugees and unaccompanied minors have found in football a space for integration and participation.<\/p>\n
Italy is also proud to take part in the UEFA Unity EURO Cup, organized together with UNHCR. The tournament brings together teams composed of refugees and players from their host communities, competing side by side as a single national team.<\/p>\n
This commitment also extends to the growing international engagement of Italian football clubs. Several Serie A clubs are investing in youth development initiatives that combine football training with education, social inclusion and community engagement.<\/p>\n
These efforts are part of a broader vision of sports diplomacy that the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is actively promoting through several initiatives.<\/p>\n
And it is for all these reasons that Italy will continue to stand alongside the Group of Friends of Football and all partners committed to placing sport at the service of peace, inclusion and human dignity.<\/p>\n
I thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Madam President, Excellencies, Dear friends, Italy is proud to join the Co-Chairs of the Group of Friends of Football \u2014 Bahrain, Libya and Tajikistan \u2014 and all co-sponsoring Member States in celebrating this World Football Day. Football is one of the most universal languages in the world. It crosses borders, cultures and generations, creating connections […]","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":13090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/italyun.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/italyun.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/italyun.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italyun.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italyun.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/italyun.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13091,"href":"https:\/\/italyun.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13085\/revisions\/13091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italyun.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/italyun.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italyun.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}