ROME (ITALPRESS) – “I am an unbridled optimist, in contracts with certain sponsors I have already included the prize for qualifying for the Olympics: it is a very optimistic goal, however, I contractually included it. Never say never, it is a dream we are trying to achieve.” This was said by the president of the Italian Handball Federation (FIGH), Stefano Podini, during an interview at the Rome office of Italpress. “It is true that the best teams in the world are European so the possibility of qualifying is very small, but you can always dream,” the FederPallamano number one continued regarding the possibility that the national team could qualify for the Olympics for the first time in history. Meanwhile, after a twenty-eight-year absence, the men’s team has qualified for the World Cup to be held in Croatia, Denmark and Norway starting January 14. “We had a technical commissioner (Riccardo Trillini ed.) who was overburdened with different tasks, he was performing multiple functions within the federation, and we wanted to relieve him of a whole range of activities to see him focus on the first team. This helped in making him work better and with more serenity.” The women’s national team, on the other hand, will play in the qualifying playoffs in April: “There too we wanted to give an important signal,” Podini explained, “we have restructured the entire coaching staff, we have a new first team coach (Alfredo Rodriguez ed.) who is assisted by coaches from Spain and we wanted to give this imprint to the women’s sector where we believe there is a lot of work to be done, we start at a disadvantage compared to the men but we told ourselves that if it does not go well in April, it will go well for the next European qualifiers, it is a work in progress. Podini was elected president in June this year: “First I was an athlete, then an executive, league president and now president of the Federation. It’s forty-eight years of a well-rounded journey that brought me to this position, which was certainly full of pitfalls, problems and challenges to be faced. There was a desire to find sponsors to accompany us in these challenges, we found the main sponsor and we are looking for others. We are working in the round.” On the possibility of organizing big events in Italy Podini adds, “I know well the organization of these events, they are very challenging. The bar that the World Federation sets is very high, there are a whole series of very expensive services to be guaranteed. The problem is finding the business partners to organize these events, the organizational capacity would be there but the funds are lacking. We are ready to prepare them, but we need to find the right regions and institutions to follow us in this kind of adventure,” he concluded.- photo Italpress -(ITALPRESS)
