Award ceremony for Walking Football Pinerolo-Luserna
Date of the event:
On 12 November 2026 the City of Pinerolo presented an award to the Walking Football Pinerolo-Luserna association in the Reception Hall (Sala di Rappresentanza) of the Town Hall. The association plays walking football, a discipline played without running or physical contact, low-impact and open to men and women of different ages and abilities.[1][2]
From the first training session to the award
The experience began in 2016, after a report on Rai 3 by Bruno Pizzul and Gianni Mura on this sporting format that had arrived from England. Guido Destefanis, now the association's president, then gathered the friends he had played with in the city's evening league in the 1970s. At the first training session there were five participants; by the time of the award the association had forty members, who train every Wednesday from 4pm to 7pm at the San Germano sports hall.[1]
The partnership with I Tremolini and the Agnelli Hospital's neurology unit
Walking Football Pinerolo-Luserna works with the association I Tremolini of Torre Pellice, which runs prevention and wellbeing activities for people with Parkinson's disease, such as walking, dance, adapted gymnastics, yoga and singing. This partnership also sparked the interest of the neurology unit at Pinerolo's Agnelli Hospital: its director, Carmelo Roberto Labate, explained that movement, practised consistently and under professional guidance, can help people with Parkinson's maintain mobility, balance, coordination and independence.[1][2]
A tournament in schools
Fabio Secondo, the project's spokesperson and promoter, described a scheme already under way with schools in the Pinerolo area, which will also involve the City of Pinerolo. In March 2027, to mark International Women's Day, a school tournament with mixed boys' and girls' teams is planned.[1][2]
Speakers
Speaking at the ceremony were regional councillor Marina Bordese, the association's president Guido Destefanis, the director of the Pinerolo hospital's neurology unit Carmelo Roberto Labate, spokesperson Fabio Secondo, the councillor for Sport, Events and Kindness Bruna Destefanis, and the councillor for Social and Health Policy Lara Pezzano. Councillor Destefanis described walking football as "a sport that doesn't select, doesn't exclude and leaves no one behind," while Pezzano pointed to other municipal projects linking sport and health, such as Nastro Rosa with the Accademia Scherma Pinerolo fencing academy, pledging to strengthen the network between sport, health and social services.[1]
Sources
- Pinerolo. Sport, inclusione e socialità: il Comune premia la squadra di calcio camminato Pinerolo-Luserna — Eco del Chisone, 13 November 2026
- Il Walking Football Pinerolo-Luserna premiato per inclusione, salute e socialità — TorinoOggi, 13 November 2026