I have realised the strange way some emotions make you see a different reality from the one offered by people who are supposed to grow it and make it an efficient one. It is a powerful force coming from the past and reaching the future through the country history and its champions.
Unfortunately the two realities do not intertwine, rather they are both aliens in the very same body : handball.
I have been living in Rome for the last few years and I have witnessed important handball clubs disappearing from the scene after the initial enthusiasm. What are the reasons ? Laziness , tiredness ? Maybe is there a lack of support from the national authorities? I do not have an answer, but I know for sure that in Rome, the Italian capital city, there has been a huge effort to save handball from disappearing from the local sport scene.
But then doubts start to come up when I hear stories, like the one where a parent rang the federation to enquire about handball teams in Rome where his kids could play our beloved sport. Do you know what was the answer? " In Rome handball does not exist". So if that is true, where I have been playing and with whom I have been training with all these years?? With ghosts? Teams such as Virtus Roma, The German School, SS Lazio, Roma Trionfale, Roma Handball.. Do not exist according to the federation!
Local sport authorities are eager to open to handball but because we do not exist we cant do anything about it.
We have got SS Lazio which has been playing in the top Italian league for years.Even though they have been through hard times. There is also another team made up of foreigners who would like to play in the serie B league. Two other teams which are devoted to grass roots playing activities and other two teams who have been playing in the EHF Masters competitions.
What do these teams have in common is the hard-core passion for handball, the enthusiasm and the " never surrender " kind of attitude towards the authorities which deny their mere existence on the Roman handball scene. By the way, Nice, has been the host of the European Master Games, where Italian handball has been represented by Roma Handball team. The club is lead by two historical figures : the coach Tonino Santucci and the ex player, Giorgio Alfei.
Giorgio says that even though the club has gone through ups and downs, they have ben playing handball at European level in the Masters category since 2005 ( Barcelona ). Anywhere they went, they had fun, created great memories and left a good image of Italy.
Again the very same question comes up : how come we are an actual reality in Europe but we do not exist and we are not acknowledged by our own federation?
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