Football embraces the university. The “Varese Academy” is born

Varese 1910 and the LUDES University of Lugano have created the “Varese Academy”. This project was presented during the press conference this morning, Wednesday, 22 October, by the head of marketing and communication of Varese Football Club, Marcello Vitella. “These activities contribute so much to our idea of Varese 2.0. We are grateful to LUDES for the opportunity; Varese Football Club will act as the container, and the University will provide the contents. The intention of the Varese Academy is to bring sport and education together, and the target will be our athletes, supporters, coaches and parents.”

The courses are starting on Monday, 24 November, and will be held every Monday until March. The enrolments will open tomorrow, Thursday, 23 October, on the website www.vareseacademy-ludes.org. Participation will be free, but for every meeting, there will be a maximum number of participants, for the best results.

For the University, the project was explained by Raffaella Greco, the head of project development and marketing at LUDES. “We must thank Varese Football Club for this opportunity, which was immediately shared by both parties. We want to go beyond the usual norms of a football team and of a University, and we hope to expand our idea also to others organisations.”

The Dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences, Fabio Gabrielli, presented the objectives of the course. “The core from which we are starting is man and his relationships, and football provides many opportunities to interact. We’ve joined this project and we hope it will be the driving force for the whole world of football. We also believe the crisis in the last few years has not only depended on technical and tactical aspects, but has also concern man in his entirety. We have to start from an overall vision of the human being and try to apply philosophy to football.”

One of the people in charge of this project is Dr Andrea Carta, a lecturer and a researcher at LUDES. “In this case, we need to get away from the psychology stereotype, and apply it to the football environment. We’re going to start from the experience of each person, from relationships and communication, in order to create people who can grow in the world of football. Starting from this point of view of people, we’ll try to create a psychology of sport for athletes. We don’t intend to pass on techniques that will be forgotten in the long run, but create a base on which to work, that helps people.”

Finally, the Chairman of Varese Football Club, Nicola Laurenza spoke. “We’re very interested in this project. The most important aspect is that it can become a point of reference. You can’t always win, so, nurturing a culture of defeat helps to grow. I expect everyone in the football club share this initiative.”