Sport in general - and football in particular - plays an important role as an integrating element and must be an example of values such as respect, equality, teamwork and the desire to improve. These are precisely what is felt on the field when the ball begins to roll in LaLiga Genuine Santander, the first and only official football league for people with intellectual disabilities. This initiative started in 2017 with the help of the LaLiga FOUNDATION and season after season - there are now four - it has showcased the best football under the motto “Share before competing”.
Since that moment, LaLiga Genuine Santander has become a benchmark for what the values of sport represent. The objective of the competition is to enjoy, although a victory is always a reason for satisfaction and competitiveness is a reflection of the effort and improvement of the players. If this phase of LaLiga Genuine Santander has ratified something, it is that not only the sporting results add up, but also the displays of sportsmanship of players, coaches and fans.
It is not the only peculiarity of the tournament. Here the teams can be both single category - male or female - or mixed. The only requirement is that players are over sixteen years old and have a minimum intellectual disability of 33%. The competition is played in the 8-a-side format, in matches of 4 parts of 10 minutes each. This year the fourth season is already being held, divided into 3 phases and distributed across 5 venues.
On this occasion, the host was UD Las Palmas and the Ciudad Deportiva Barranco Seco was the venue chosen for 24 of the 42 participating teams to face each other on April 1, 2 and 3. A total of more than 500 male and female players and members of coaching staff who for three days filled the facilities of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with football in its most integrative aspect and the values intrinsic to this competition: respect and camaraderie.
An experience that, for UD Las Palmas, is not only an opportunity, it is also necessary because “this project helps to understand diversity as something natural, gives value and should create awareness in us that we are rational beings. Inclusion as a natural fact, rather than obligatory, must be an example for the entire society,” explains Manuel Rodríguez “Tonono”, director of the club's Training and Recruitment Department. And, about the Canary Islands football school, he adds: "In addition to its taste for good treatment of the ball, it has also brought enthusiasm, love and affection to all those who have participated in the competition."
LaLiga Genuine Santander officially took off in this way on Friday, April 1 with an event at the Barranco Seco Sports City. Starting shot presided by Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, who admitted that he was delighted with a project that he remembered, has a very long-term projection because “after Las Palmas de Gran Canaria we go to Gijón, we continue in Málaga, Cádiz and we finish in Bilbao. And all this while we begin to work thinking about the next season. The values of sacrifice and camaraderie that this tournament transmits are an example both for those of us who are in football and for those who are not.”
In the words of Miguel Ángel Ramírez, president of UD las Palmas, this action shows that this sport is setting the course in terms of integration because “the football industry is very important in our country, and as far as our responsibility is concerned corporate social we comply. I wish the rest of the sectors in Spain did the same thing that the world of football is doing," he says.
Manuel Rodríguez “Tonono”, director of the Training and Recruitment Department at UD Las Palmas, was also proud and delighted to have been the host club of the first phase of LaLiga Genuine Santander: “for us it is a true honor to be able to organize an event of These characteristics, above all, being one of the pioneer clubs in the organization of LaLiga Genuine Santander and taking into account that before LaLiga organized it we had created the i i team and had it framed as another team in the training department.
Support for the competition is unanimous, including the support of society. This is something that has been seen in this first weekend in which the Canarian facilities were packed with fans coming from all over Spain to witness the first 36 matches of the season and the official opening of the sports and competition classifications. Fair Play.
That was the first victory, the other came in the form of good results for some of the clubs. Specifically, in the Deportividad group, the Rayo Vallecano Foundation and Cádiz CF tied at 9 points and the Compañerismo group also closed with a tie at 9 at the head of the group, with the Club Atlético de Madrid Foundation, Sevilla FC and the Fundació Barça Genuine, which has joined LaLiga Genuine Santander this season.
Precisely a player from the latter team, Kamal El Yachou, highlights the opportunity that participating in such an initiative represents for him: “Everything we experienced has made us grow. Furthermore, we did not expect to win all three games. There are teams that have been working together for years and we have only been working together for nine months. Playing in LaLiga Genuine Santander is an adrenaline rush. "It means being the protagonist of football, just as you see it on TV."
An enthusiasm for being able to take part in the adventure that he shares with Francisco Javier Casanova de la Rosa, a member of FC Cartagena, another of the debuting teams this season and who acknowledged being “very proud to play the first season in LaLiga Genuine Santander. It was a great prize for us because in this league there are the most representative clubs in Spain and that is why we dedicated a lot of training and a lot of effort to it. The experience has been very good. We had a great time and we learned respect for rivals and sportsmanlike behavior.”
Fundación Málaga CF leads the Fair Play classification with a total of 89 points, followed by Real Sociedad Fundazioa and CD Tenerife, both with 88 points. LaLiga Genuine Santander said goodbye to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in this way with its sights set on the second part of the first phase of the championship, which will take the teams to Asturian lands, where Real Sporting will host the 18 teams, which They have not yet been released in competition. It will be during the weekend of April 22, 23 and 24 at the Mareo Football School in Gijón.
Elliot Adriel Brito Torres, player and one of the captains of UD Las Palmas, said goodbye to the footballers who had passed through his land, explaining to them that “he was very happy to have been able to play at home and close to our people. I wish it could be repeated every year! The friendship, camaraderie, empathy, and being able to participate, share and help these days has been wonderful. I dream of the day when all possible barriers can be eliminated and true social inclusion can be experienced. And this championship is the first step.”
Everything indicates that this will be the case, that it will continue to grow. The initiative that was born to make a wish of LaLiga and Gimnàstic de Tarragona come true with the aim of giving more prominence to people with intellectual disabilities has become an unavoidable sporting event and is now a global benchmark.
