Football sided with the environment

by Paolo Ghiga

That the problem of the environment is a very sensitive issue is known to all, so much that for some time also some Italian football teams have decided to disappear from the sponsors' logos t-shirts to host important reflections.
And the examples are many. Some months ago, on the occasion of the transfer at the Court of Turin of the Eternit process for asbestos victims in the territory of Casale Monferrato, in Piedmont, the Casale Calcio (in agreement with other local sporting organisations) has decided as a form of sympathy and solidarity to expose on their jerseys "Eternit giustizia"("Eternit: justice"), to not forget and to shake the public.

It is news recently, however, that from Sunday 21th March t-shirts of Urbino Calcio will host the slogan "Solare sì, nucleare no" (“Solar Yes, nuclear no”), for an initiative so far unique in its kind.

The debate on nuclear power is returned because of the level of current emergency of energy sources and environmental pollution and has already collected opinions strongly opposed technicians.
But there's more: for aficionados of football, now in fibrillation, the Football World Cup 2010 is imminent.
The gest of every nationality, technical discussions on form 4-4-2 instead of 3-5-2 will enrich their days to a month.
The most interesting, though, comes from the tournament produced by Nike and planned, for now, from nine national teams: they will be sustainable, i.e. obtained each from recycling of eight plastic bottles. Given the total number of players (32 teams entered), the economic savings is clear. In addition, approximately 254 tonnes of waste landfill survivors will be sublimated into a task far more honorific: the equivalent in area of 29 football fields, while 13 million plastic bottles recycled polyester become colourful ecological jerseys.
The process of producing wrong-headed of "raw" from Japanese and Taiwanese landfills and by spinning tissue obtained. It is estimated that the savings of energy to produce than using polyester Virgin can reach 30%. The national teams that will show off ecological meshes are Brazil, England, Portugal, Holland, USA, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia and Slovenia, to which we hope the remaining teams, primarily Italy, will follow too.
Some experts argue that the example can be followed by various Nations also locally: think only to saving for Italian Serie a and B, but especially at the aspect of environmental sustainability that would make an entry in its own right in a sport that collects almost the totality of the public favours.