The health of the athlete as an absolute priority for occupational protection, the need to render increasingly congested match schedules sustainable, and the extraordinary power of football to act as an instrument of international diplomacy and cooperation. On the eve of SFS 26, Fabio G. Poli, Organizational Director of the Italian Footballers' Association (AIC), outlines a detailed map of the present and future challenges facing professional sports. Across two key panels at the Allianz Stadium — dedicated respectively to a structural dialogue with INAIL regarding occupational risks and to the role of major foundations in social missions within developing countries — AIC reaffirms the necessity of a deep cultural transformation.
This vision unites the physical protection of the footballer during and beyond their competitive career with an ethical and educational commitment capable of tearing down social barriers and countering youth exploitation, reaffirming the primary value of sport as a right, a profession, and a driver of human growth.
The general public often struggles to associate professional footballers with traditional workplace safety dynamics. From the perspective of the Italian Footballers' Association, what is the most urgent cultural step required to convey that health, prevention, and injury management in football are fully recognized labor protection issues?
"Male and female professional footballers are employed workers under our legal framework, no different from conventional employees. We must consider young men and women who undertake careers lasting twenty years or more, built on the continuous and wearing use of their bodies as their primary work instrument. They constantly push physical and mental exertion to the absolute limit. For many years, AIC has placed the protection of athlete health at the core of its mission, both during their active playing days and well after retirement."
In the panel 'Health of the Sports Worker' at SFS 26, you engage directly with the leadership of INAIL to analyze prevention and insurance coverage in the sector. What are the current strengths of the sports labor protection system, and how can the dialogue between AIC and INAIL foster a more precise recognition of specific pathologies and occupational risks tied to high-level athletics?
"AIC and INAIL have embarked on a collaborative path aimed at protecting the sports worker while prioritizing workplace prevention and related behaviors. Sports, and elite professional football in particular, represent a genuine workplace environment. For this reason, INAIL and AIC signed a memorandum of understanding to promote awareness and understanding of mandatory insurance protections.
From this protocol stems the investigation into occupational diseases that INAIL and AIC will conduct across a sample of active and former male and female players. The objective is to evaluate the long-term health effects of prolonged high-level athletic activity on sports workers."
In recent years, match intensity and the number of official fixtures have increased dramatically, imposing unprecedented physical and psychological strains. To what extent is this evolution of competitions impacting injury frequency, and what monitoring tools or contractual protections is AIC advocating for to safeguard the sustainability of athletic performance?
"The past few decades have fundamentally reshaped elite global football, completing its transformation from a sport into a sports-entertainment product. This process was heavily accelerated by evolving content consumption habits and a growing array of media and sporting alternatives. To maintain or expand its share of consumer attention and business, football had to adapt its offering to market demand. This brought an increase in fixtures, increasingly dense schedules with irregular kick-off times, new competitions, and significantly longer travel. All of this applies to both club and national team levels.
The result is a volume of matches growing at a pace far beyond the safety threshold for an athlete's body. It is not merely a question of minutes played, but of travel, logistics, and stress management... a combination of risk factors that, once past the threshold of tolerance, inevitably leads to injuries. These injuries trigger a cascade of financial and competitive damage for clubs, ultimately diminishing the spectacle for fans and supporters alike.
AIC has launched an awareness campaign focused on player health and the threshold of sustainability for an athlete's commitments. While the commercial dynamics of the entertainment industry are relevant to all stakeholders, protecting the primary protagonist on the pitch remains essential to preserving the overall quality of the product for consumers."
The physical toll of a high-intensity career does not cease upon retirement, presenting long-term health challenges and professional transition hurdles. What initiatives and support models is AIC developing to guide players into a second career, turning prevention into genuine long-term career sustainability?
"Thinking about the future is the core philosophy behind approaching any professional career, particularly for athletes whose competitive lifespans end much earlier than traditional occupations. Athletes are required to plan for a 'second career' — the period spanning from competitive retirement to eventual pension age. The current economic ecosystem requires the vast majority of athletes to secure employment post-retirement.
The Association has long addressed the theme of 'dual careers' through educational initiatives designed to facilitate reskilling and workforce reintegration for male and female players at the end of their careers. Alongside building cultural awareness regarding workers' rights, our commitment to professional training and career transition represents the most effective form of active prevention, positioning AIC as a benchmark within our system."
In the second panel, 'When Football Builds Bridges', you explore football as a medium for dialogue, integration, and cooperation across diverse cultures. From AIC's perspective, what is the true power of football in overcoming geographic and social barriers where traditional diplomacy struggles?
"Football is genuinely an international language. It requires no translation, programming, or mediation. It takes nothing more than placing a ball in front of a group of children and watching them interact.
When speaking about youth football, social and cultural frameworks shape how the game is practiced across different geographic regions. In European countries, socio-economic conditions have turned youth football into a structured activity scheduled within tight family calendars — a setup far removed from spontaneous play, managed by adults within enclosed facilities. In developing nations, by contrast, youth football mirrors the Italian model of the 1960s: spontaneous, unstructured play in public spaces across extended hours.
Yet it remains the exact same activity and language. Recognizing this, AIC initiated a project over a decade ago aimed at restoring the essence of 'play' within football academies. This educational-sports framework is delivered by former professional players who have embraced new career opportunities. Concurrently, the AIC Junior Department promotes this model, adapted to local social contexts, in developing countries. Through a memorandum of understanding with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, we were pioneers in leveraging football as a tool for international diplomacy and unity."
The panel convenes AIC Onlus, the AIC Junior Area, and global organizations such as the Eni Foundation, moderated by Mediaset. How can strategic collaboration between professional players and major international foundations translate football's popularity into concrete community development and solidarity projects?
"Developing nations view sports, and football in particular, as a powerful catalyst for employment and social mobility. Supported by organizations like the Eni Foundation and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, former players within the AIC Junior Department, under the guidance of Simone Perrotta, have traveled to nations such as Uganda, Jordan, Burundi, Ivory Coast, and Egypt. The core focus remains consistent: training local educators.
Young men and women, often drawn from challenging socio-economic backgrounds, are equipped with specific know-how to deliver inclusive, high-quality technical and educational sports programs. The goal is to foster organized, qualified local sports structures. This enables children to participate in healthy athletic activities locally while actively combatting the dangerous practice of 'football trafficking' — the unauthorized transfer of minors from developing nations driven purely by athletic speculation."
With the presence of the AIC Junior Department, the focus expands to youth development and the educational value of play. What ethical responsibilities do today's athletes hold in imparting values of cooperation, respect, and inclusion to younger generations?
"Sport is a life experience that must prioritize individual human growth. Football serves as a developmental journey for every child who plays, regardless of their athletic talent or potential to reach professional ranks. Teaching football as a 'game' does not mean neglecting talent development; it means refraining from focusing exclusively on elite selection processes.
The former professional players driving the AIC Junior Department understand both the intrinsic value of sport and the dynamics of talent identification. As a result, our department's initiatives are guided by ethical principles above purely athletic ones. The objective is to re-engage children and their families with sport as a venue for socialization and personal development. Achieving this requires continuously adapting our educational framework to contemporary social contexts through active collaboration with families and schools."