We have been repeating it for some time now, if you are young, especially if you are a junior or under 23, Finding a team is increasingly difficult. Either the boys are already real champions or the situation is getting significantly complicated.
Whether it's a certain crisis (also due to Covid), a tax system that doesn't encourage the creation of new clubs, or road safety... the result is that there are fewer and fewer teams where you can sign up. And they're increasingly fewer, if not almost completely absent, from Tuscany and Umbria on down.
In this context, the risk of losing young players, even before losing potential champions, becomes ever greater.
We asked ourselves what the Federation to help those kids who are left "on foot". We have seen that the Cycling Federation has moved, for example, to find a team for the World Championships in Roubaix, Liam Bertazzo, but with the boys?
A word from Cazzaniga
Couldn't it be possible to imagine each regional committee forming its own team, so as to include any "uncontracted" candidates?
«So you withdraw my sprint – he starts off in a trumpet and in a passionate way Roger Cazzaniga, vice-president of the FCI – I had this proposal included in the implementing regulations already last year".
Individual membership isn't possible; you need a club. With this rule (31.0 of the 2021 amateur regulations, ed.), regional presidents, or their representatives, could create a fictitious club—so to speak—and thus establish an affiliation themselves, thus allowing the various young players looking for a team to sign up.
«The problem is that unfortunately the regional committees themselves have snubbed this proposal using as excuses any problems the kids could cause, not being directly followed, rather than highlighting the opportunities of this initiative."
Promotion objective
Cazzaniga then brings the topic up again. He believes it's not just about finding teams for the kids, but about promoting them.
«The role of a federation is not only to win more medals – continues Cazzaniga – which is clearly important, but it is to to be able to put in a position the boys to approach this sport. I'll give you an example: in May there is the Tour of Italy, In June, I need to be able to sign up the kids who get passionate about watching the Giro d'Italia with their dads. But today, no club signs up a kid starting from scratch, or almost, in June. And I can't blame them too much, given that in most cases they aren't in good financial shape and there are still costs to cover.
"And we shouldn't just think about juniors or under-18s, who are few and far between, but we also need to think about rookies, students, and kids who could be signed up. The local kids: I think that between track, road, BMX, MTB... we can find something."
"This is why the idea of regional committee teams was, and is, a winning one for me. It's a practically zero-cost solution. Anyone who can't find a team almost certainly owns their own bicycle, The Federation, in this case the regional committees, have no problem establishing affiliation and registering a rider; it's just a matter of providing the kids with a jersey. If they then have problems getting ten jerseys, then there's something wrong with that regional committee itself.
"If it were up to me," adds Cazzaniga, "I would also implement this membership drive initiative at a central, national level."
Opportunities for all
Clearly, signing up in this way is a kind of lifeline, we're aware of that, but a lifeline is better than not trying at all. Than not being able to pursue your dreams.
«A boy or a girl would go to the races with their parents "—says Cazzaniga—wearing the jersey of their respective committees. That way, they'd still have a chance to play their cards.
«According to the regulations of the resolution I presented, regional competitions could be held, but not national ones, which require teams of at least four members. They would obviously run in the region if there is a race in their committee, but they can also move to other regions. I'm thinking maybe of the South. That way, boys and girls still have the opportunity to follow their dreams. And if a team were interested in them... they'd be free to go."
