Reaching Sardinia with a Drug-Free Message through Sports

Sardinia, the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, is an Italian island located west of mainland Italy. With dazzling white-sand beaches, the Gola Su Gorropu gorge, Il Castello citadel, 7,000 nuraghis (Bronze Age towers) and more, Sardinia is crawling with tourists. But for the locals, it’s not all pretty beaches and sun-soaked holidays. Drugs are a situation across Italy, and Sardinia is no different. It is cited as having a cocaine use prevalence higher than the Italian national average.

But Drug-Free World Sardinia was determined to see their beautiful island shine drug-free, so they launched their Truth About Drugs activities. Since then, they have regularly carried out distribution events of Truth About Drugs booklets across the island, provided booklets to stores for their customers and held seminars to reach youth.

Drug-Free World Sardinia was determined to see their beautiful island shine drug-free, so they launched their Truth About Drugs activities.

Knowing that youth look up to sports celebrities and love soccer (football), the Drug-Free World team has been holding a soccer mini tournament since 2014 in honor of the United Nations’ International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. For their sixth annual tournament, they held it in Sardinia’s capital, Cagliari, with four teams competing.

The event was made possible by the support of Gennaro Longobardi, presenter of the La Gradinata Sport TV show and the Sardinian chapter of MSP Italia, a nonprofit association for the promotion of sports, as well as by the hospitality of Polisportiva Johannes (Johannes Sports Club), which made the playing field available.

Truth About Drugs booklets were distributed to attendees young and old, and the match was televised on Sardinia 1 TV, promoting the message to live drug-free.

The Drug-Free World soccer team won the final match, beating a team of local TV journalists. Their victory this year was in no small measure thanks to the participation of former pro soccer player Gianni Roccotelli.