The initiative urged on by President Gabriele Gravina takes shape thanks to the collaboration with the mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella, who has renamed the centre ‘The Home of Solidarity’, as well as the USL Tuscany Centre, who have taken charge of the site that will be managed by the local health organisation and the Società della Salute.

With this plan, the FIGC and Federcalcio Servizi, a company fully owned by the Federation, are actively contributing to the urgent aim of finding rooms in the Tuscan accommodation sector to meet the extraordinary needs related to the health emergency that the country is experiencing. As written by President Gravina in a letter to Mayor Nardella, the plan represents “further evidence of the strong bond that unites the FIGC with the city of Florence.” A concrete aid that is part of the general framework of solidarity initiatives that football as a whole, and the FIGC in particular, are putting into place to deal with these dramatic circumstances.

With inspections having been carried out by the Civil Protection of the City of Florence, the green light has been given to implement isolation there, because at the moment there is no option for those patients who have been COVID-19 positive, were clinically healed and autonomous at the date of discharge, but still show as positive to the swab test and also are unable to reside at home. There are 54 rooms that can be used, together with all the common areas of the Casa delle Nazionali, known abroad as the University of football. An iconic place, immersed in Florence’s greenery, where all the successful Italian teams have been formed since ’68.

“I’m happy that our plan has been welcomed with such enthusiasm by Mayor Nardella,” said President Gravina. “We are trying, by all our means, to contribute to the management of this emergency. I hope that the hospitality of the Federal Centre at Coverciano can aid the full recovery of those who will stay there.”

“I thank President Gravina and the FIGC for having made the Coverciano facility available to the city of Florence,” said Mayor Dario Nardella. “This is the first time that this complex has been used for health purposes: it will go down in history, but above all it will help us to manage the entire emergency phase from Monday onwards.”

Photos and videos of the USL Tuscany Centre in Coverciano can be downloaded here.