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‘Football doesn’t just belong to us: we are the game’
STEWART McGILL reports on the match between Naples and Glasgow's refugee teams in Italy
United Glasgow players in Naples, Italy
Napoli United 2-1 United Glasgow
by Stewart McGill
at the Alberto Vallefuoco stadium, Mugnano, Naples
BACK in December 2021 I was in Napoli doing some research for The Roaring Red Front, a book about the world’s top leftist football clubs and supporters.
While chatting to Pietro Spaccaforno from Napoli United, the team representing the refugee population of Naples, I suggested they play a game against United Glasgow, that city’s refugee team.
The Napoli club was founded as Afro-Napoli United in 2009 by local Neapolitans and two Senegalese immigrants. Its aim is to achieve and promote social inclusion through sport, focusing in particular on the involvement of migrants, asylum-seekers and young people at risk of exclusion living in the metropolitan area of Napoli. The team is now known as Napoli United and plays in the fifth tier of Italian football, La Eccelenza.
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