ROME -- Supporting your local team is an important part of daily life for many Italians. Where once existed a culture of profound passion there is now to be found a sanitised spectacle which has attracted and repulsed in equal measure. However, there are still those who believe that football should retain its popular appeal as part of its central tenants. This is the story of a man who used personal tragedy to unite football in the fight to save his son.

 Giuseppe Sorrentino is the father of Gennaro, a child affected by CDG, a rare illness discovered 40 years ago, that has 23 child sufferers in Italy now. The cost to cure the disease is enormous, one that Giuseppe cannot afford, and for this reason Giuseppe decided to found the charity ‘Friends of Genny’ to find the money to cure Gennaro but also to support others afflicted by the disease. “A while ago we met the Pope along with other families from all over Italy. To lift the burden of this disease would mean taking on a huge financial burden. One of the other fathers, from Genoa, told me he had to go to Germany once a month before the region of Liguria told him there were no more funds available to help him. I told this story to a friend and I decided to help him. We share the same passion for football and I thought that using it to unite people would help to promote a message that contained so many delicate personal stories.”

 Giuseppe is a big fan of Paganese, a club in the third tier of Italian football, and had spent a great deal of his life in the stands following the club and he knew that its supporters would be sympathetic to the cause. “I’m creating this charity for those families with the least hope and I want it to extend beyond just or local cause. The first initiative was organised by the north stand in Pagani but soon the fans of Nocera wanted to organised their own initiative. I think that everyone knows the historic rivalry between Pargani and Novera and I never would have thought that I would have had the chance to speak to fans of Nocera whilst they held a demonstration in honour of Gennaro. I had tears in my eyes. There were lots of people from Pagani there too who were standing in the stands along with their friends and family. The scenes were such that the police commissioner of Salerno declared that a 19-month-old child had managed to do something that hadn’t been achieved before in football. We usually make shirts for the referee and captain but in this case the Nocera fans made 22, one for each player. There was also applause from the stands as well as hearts opened up to Gennaro.”

 This good will did not only extend to the stadium; the supposedly wild ultras held a collection that received 4,000 euros, 1250 went to Giuseppe’s son. It’s obvious that this cause has opened a lot of hearts and now Sorrentino always seeks to sit with opposing ultras as a sign that part of their support will always encompass humanity. This campaign has shown that there will always be a desire among football fans to help others in need and that the divide between supporters can easily be bridged. Sorrentino has also emphasised his desire for the money raised to always be easily available to needy causes.

 His campaign has reached above the lower divisions of Italian football and on the 8^th of February he shall be at the match between Crotone and Juventus. The president of Crotone comes from Pagani and wants to contribute to the cause.

 The key to the success of this campaign, in the eyes of Sorrentino, has been the fact that it has been devoid of politics or bureaucracy as Sorrentino has found. He claims to have a distrust for those official channels who he feels take advantage of causes for their own benefit. Instead he feels targeting like-minded fans, who clearly have some disposable income, he was able to be far more successful. For him the most meaningful gift has been that of team scarves, an incredibly potent sign of belonging in the ultra-community that he has received from around the country.  

 Whilst it’s his desire to have Serie A exposure, he also knows that the Paganese are his greatest asset and at the forefront of his cause.

 “It was very hard for me to accept my son’s illness and all this has been a huge help to me,” he says. “As a man who has played and loved football it’s something you always want to do (taking your son to games) but your world falls apart when you cant. You must be strong and to react in a way that will help him. The real fighters have been my son, Gennaro, and my wife, Maria Rosaria, a woman who fought for all three of us from the very beginning. Every time I arrive in a stand and see people who are fighting our cause I know I am doing the right thing.

 To contact Giuseppe and get to know the initiative you can use his email address: Peppesorrentino79@hotmail.it or contact him on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/giuseppe.sorrentino.188?fref=ts&__mref=message_...

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