Series B, agreement with Lombardy Region
Serie B, the agreement
Regione Lombardia and Lega Serie B together to promote the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games and, at the same time, launch a partnership to support Lombardy’s under-23 athletes. The signing of the protocol today in Milan, in the Lombardy Region Palace, with undersecretary with responsibility for sports Lara Magoni and president Mauro Balata.
Common interests that go in the direction of enhancing, within their competencies, the Olympic principles and sport, in particular the development of football culture, in an integrated perspective of tourism and sports growth of the Lombardy territory, populated in B by five clubs, in the path of approach to the great international event of 2026.
Not only sport, then, but also territory: on the part of the Lombardy Region and Lega Serie B, in fact, there is an awareness of how sport is often at the center of a community not only of fans but a flywheel of resources, an economic reference point, development and marketing for the enhancement and richness of places. Considerations that find a central role in the protocol.
The next step will see the appointment of technical referents for the definition, management and operativeness of projects on the issues in the document, an organization that provides for a coordinating committee.
The protocol, which enters into force on today’s date, will haveà duration until 2026.
Statements at the press conference – At the opening the honors of the undersecretary Magoni who also brought greetings from the president of the Lombardy Region Attilio Fontana: “For me today è a great emotion because I have also been in the past a sportswoman and to work alongside the Lega B è an honor. To be able to bind ourselves with this protocol to a league that recruits young people, especially for the Lombardy region that represents more than 180,000 card-carrying members, è a source of great pride. The collaboration è further significant because I would like to mention that the red ball that I have here represents an extraordinary initiative of the B League: a unique initiative that on the day of November 25 has chosen to play with this ball, a symbol of the fight against violence against women and gender violence. So a league that is not è only football, soccer players and ball but è also rich in so much humanità and synergistic values with which I want to collaborate. If we think that we will soon be the region that will host the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we need to give a synergistic message with an’affinity, that of soccer, which represents us very well. Lombardy è the region with the largest number of professional teams, of which we are very involved and happy to be part of, but è correct today to also think of a model of collaboration where soccer enters into synergy with sport, with all those 500 disciplines that represent sport becauseé in that world, in that ball, there are many disciplines: there’è behind a world of sponsors, volunteers, athletes, professionals, coaches, technicians and everything related to it. Sport è this is it: è a 360-degree world and together we absolutely have to work to foster this and to remind ourselves that today we are facing problems towards young people that have to be overcome with great responsibility. So, the social withdrawal of young people, the difficulties of young people: we lose a small part that però è è can only be recovered through sports as a universal tool for inclusion. I thank President Balata for the opportunity we shared together and the companies present. I consider this protocol interesting and important to be able to shout out loud that sports for us è meaningful and è an important pillar today, tomorrow and forever”.
Then, è President Balata intervened and reciprocated the affection and esteem: “We are truly honored and proud becauseé to be here today with the leading region in Italy and in all sectors, so also in sports with 5 of our societiesà that make great sacrifices precisely in the direction that the undersecretary indicated to us earlier, that is; that of enabling so many young Italians, not only those that I define as high level, but also those small and a little bit bigger, to continue practicing sports, investing in these assets, in the facilities and having Regione Lombardia as a partner for us è fundamental. I want to quote you the data regarding the presence of young Italians in our five Lombardy clubs that are represented here today: we have an aggregate percentage of as many as 90 percent of players who are Italian, some even reaching 93 percent. All this è is the result of a work that we have all managed to carry out together, a road that we have taken and on which we want to continue working. This partnership and this protocol that binds us to the Lombardy Region for us è really a huge stimulus to continue in this direction, in a situation that is not always è easy: sometimes we get a little bit ’ abandoned in this mission that should be everyone’s mission. I maintain that if we want to restore enthusiasm and vigor to our soccer and our brand that were once the best in the world, we have to make this kind of policy, implementing and supporting it as the Lombardy Region is doing today. The signing of this protocol in view of the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Games è the result of a sharing of values and we carry them out on a daily basis with our clubs, managers and collaborators of the League. We are inspired, therefore, by those values that are the best of the sports movement. I thank Regione Lombardia, Undersecretary Lara Magoni and President Attilio Fontana”.
