Rugby, 25 blues under contract towards the World Cup

In the year leading up to the New Zealand Autumn Rugby World Cup, the Italian Rugby Federation announces a series of new investments to continue to develop and support its Women’s High Level. After finalizing the broadcasting agreement with Eleven Sport, which will broadcast a weekly match and the final stages of the Italian Serie A Women’s Championship from 2022/23, and defining the title sponsorship of the top national championship with the main sponsor Fir Bitpanda, the The Federal Council has planned an investment of over three hundred and fifty thousand euros to allow athletes of national interest to better prepare for the autumn world championship. There are twenty-five, divided into three bands identified by the federal technical sector, the Blue athletes for which the Federal Council has approved the establishment of a sports collaboration contract on an annual basis, renewable for the coming seasons, with the aim of supporting the professional activity or university career of the best international athletes, engaged for periods between eighty and one hundred and thirty days with the Women’s National Team. The centralized contracts replace or integrate the scholarship project developed for the athletes of the Italian Women’s National Team starting from December 2020. “Our vision of female athletes who combine sports skills with qualitative paths even in non-sporting contexts, such as work and study guided the development process of the contract with the Azzurre -said the president of the Fir, Marzio Innocenti-. A path for which I thank the Federal Councilor Francesca Gallina, who since the first day has worked to achieve this objective and Italian Rugby Associates Players, for having represented and supported the girls in reaching a centralized agreement with Fir. The women’s movement is dramatically increasing the rate of competitiveness at an international level and the contractualization of our best athletes wants to guarantee them a new tangible tool in order to compete on the t scene est-match “.” Fir’s commitment – affirmed the federal councilor Fir Francesca Gallina – for the development of the women’s movement and for greater equity between genders in our sport takes on concreteness with interventions such as the contractualisation of the athletes who will be called to represent Italy, especially in a highly demanding and strategic year such as the one that will bring Manuela and her companions to the next Rugby World Cup. We are happy to be able to facilitate the athletes in reconciling their personal, academic or professional life with own life as an athlete. This agreement also constitutes a platform for the future, for the evolution of the movement and for future international players “. “Leaving the shirt in a better place than the one in which it was found is the desire and the goal of any player – said Manuela Furlan, Captain of the Italian Women’s National Team-. This agreement marks a first, important turning point for the future of our National Women’s team and, for me and the other veterans of the group, represents the best possible legacy to the next generations of Azzurre, the testimony of the will of each of us to contribute in tangible way to a rugby able to offer more and more the same opportunities to athletes. This milestone was achieved thanks to the constant support of Fir and Gira. “These are the blue under contract: Ilaria Arrighetti, Sara Barattin, Melissa Bettoni, Giordana Duca, Giada Franco, Manuela Furlan, Lucia Gai, Elisa Giordano, Isabella Locatelli, Veronica Madia , Maria Magatti, Aura Muzzo, Vittoria Ostuni-Minuzzi, Beatrice Rigoni, Michela Sillari, Sofia Stefan, Silvia Turani. Scholarships: Alyssa D’Incà, Valeria Fedrighi, Gaia Maris, Sara Seye, Francesca Sgorbini, Sara Tounesi, Vittoria Vecchini , Beatrice Veronese.