The city of Reggio Calabria is preparing to enthusiastically welcome the Italian basketball national teamexpected at the PalaCalafiore for the last challenge for the qualifications at Eurobasket 2025 against Hungary after the amazing victory at Instabul, against Turkey, which also delivered the first place in group B to the team with a mathematical qualification.
Sunday at PalaCalafiore, already sold out, will therefore be a big party and a moment of real show for the sport that will deliver an image to the entire country of a city that wants to return to being the protagonist in the categories it deserves.
At the presentation press conference, held at the Salone dei Chandeliers in Palazzo San Giorgio, the Advisor FIP of Master Group Sport Antonio Santa Maria, the captain of the national team Alessandro Pajola, coach Gianmarco Pozzecco and President Fip Giovanni Petrucci were present.
To do the honors of the house the mayor of the city Giuseppe Falcomatà who, congratulating the success of Istanbul, said:
“The great Italian and European basketball have marked our sporting history, and we are children of that period. Today we want to re -propose that dream with the awareness that can go back to being reality. The wait for the return of the national team to our city was Extraordinary: social networks are full of images of the PalaCalafiore, the arrival of the team at the airport, the bus in front of the hotel – continued Falcomatà – this shows, once again, the love and passion that Reggio has for basketball “.
The mayor also communicated that Italy, after twenty years of absence from Reggio, will return to play in a completely renewed and redeveloped palacalafiore, thanks to an intervention of about two million euros, which made the plant a flower all ‘National sport eyelet. The goal achieved thanks to a teamwork carried out by the municipal administration, with the engineer Eleonora Megale, who followed the works from the beginning, the commissioner Carmelo Romeo and the delegate Gianni Latella, who have made their commitment to the restyling of the structure. “Reggio Calabria has always lived basketball and today proves once again that she is a great capital of basketball,” said the first citizen.
The event will not be limited to the game: for the occasion, the city has organized a series of initiatives and collateral events to involve fans of all ages.
Among these, a “ball” along Corso Garibaldi, a minibasket tournament, meetings with coach and athletic preparers, freestyle shows and the realization of a dedicated mural; All initiatives located in various places and paths of the city.
“We wanted the presence of the national team to be an opportunity for aggregation for the whole community, because sport is identity, inclusion and pride”, added the mayor. Special thanks was addressed to Master Group Sport and the Italian Basketball Federation for choosing Reggio Calabria again as the seat of such a prestigious event.
At the end of the institutional meeting, a joyful crowd of children and related families, after the path of the “ball” from the municipal villa to Piazza Italia, welcomed the national teams of the national team in a warm way and the institutional representatives.