Today FIGC, the Italian Football Federation (Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio) and DAZN, the world leader in live streaming and sports entertainment, have signed an agreement for the creation of exclusive content that recounts, also through innovative formats, the full dimension and quality of Italian football, reaching a large audience and intercepting younger fans who are increasingly showing their appreciation for new narrative models.

THE FINALI GIOVANILI. The first stage of the agreement is the live broadcast on the DAZN app of the Youth Championship Finals organised by the FIGC: as official broadcaster, DAZN will broadcast live streaming of the nine Scudetto Finals of the Under 18, 17, 16 and 15 Championships for Serie A and B clubs and those for Serie C clubs, as well as the Under 17 and 15 Women's Finals.

In addition to the matches for the Scudetto, it will also be possible to follow the four Under-17 Serie A and B and Under-18 semi-finals. It is precisely from the semifinals of this category that the extensive schedule will begin, starting on Sunday 11 June in Ancona with Roma v Spal at 17:00 CEST and in San Benedetto del Tronto with Inter-Sassuolo at 20:30 CEST.

In quick succession, then, until 30 June, the other matches: on the pitch, while waiting to know the names of the finalists engaged in the coming days in the last qualifiers, there will be the best talents of Italian youth football, many players already on the agendas of the main Italian and European clubs, as well as in those of the Italian Youth National Team coaches. And speaking of Azzurri, in the current national team among others, Donnarumma (in 2015 ko in the Under 17 semi-final, AC Milan 2-3 Roma, decisive goal by Tumminello), Cristante (the most titled, two Scudetto's with Milan: Under 16 in 2010 and Under 17 in 2011, with a goal at his future Roma in the semifinals), Pellegrini (with Roma's Under 17 in 2013, eliminated by Parma), Bastoni (in 2016 at Atalanta, he scored against Inter at the deadline and won the Under 17 Scudetto, in the extra time Melegoni's goal). As well as many of the Azzurrini Under 20s who just yesterday won the World Finals in Argentina that will be played on Sunday 11 June. To close the programme, the Under 17 and 15 Women's finals.

SPECIAL CONTENT: EXPLAINING VAR. The collaboration between FIGC and DAZN continues with the development of the first special content piece, destined to revolutionise television football storytelling. Through a series of clips, fans will be able to understand how match officials, referees on the pitch and video assistant referees in the VAR centre, interpreted the main incidents of the recently concluded Serie A TIM championship. FIGC and DAZN will put together their respective expertises: the audios of the referees' and Video Assistant Referees' interviews will, in fact, be combined with the images of the most controversial episodes of the matches, with the result of reconstructing the evaluations, interpretations and final decisions.

Goal or not, offside or not, penalty or not: the clips produced by the FIGC and DAZN will offer a radical change in the narrative of football and its consumption by fans. It will be possible to see and hear what happened in those, relatively few, seconds in which the representatives of the refereeing class made their decision.

The product created by the FIGC and DAZN wants to accompany a cultural change in the different targets involved in Italian football and at the same time tell the story of Italian football from a new and innovative perspective, educating and informing fans, but also the media and insiders, explaining the approach of match officials, the difficulty in having to make the right decision in conditions that are not always emotionally easy and comparing television images to the sensory perception of the episode on the pitch. And finally, also showing the error, which is, after all, a part to be considered in the complex activity of objective evaluation of a fact, in any field.

"We are happy - comments Gabriele Gravina, president of the FIGC - to be able to launch in collaboration with DAZN, whom I thank, a fascinating and innovative partnership, which aims to involve young people through the use of new languages, platforms and technology that is increasingly in step with the times. We have achieved one of our primary objectives: with a greater and more complete visibility of the national finals organised by our Youth and School Sector, the fruits of the work of the clubs' youth teams can be appreciated, also from a national perspective. But thanks to the editorial partnership with DAZN we will also begin to explore a new way to attract and interest football fans through the creation of content in which the VAR decisions will be explained through images and especially audios with the referees".

"We are proud to bring the biggest youth football event organised in Italy to live streaming on DAZN. Making football accessible through modalities typical of a young audience means not only increasing the visibility of the competition but also supporting the young talents that tomorrow could become the future champions of Serie A TIM, supporting the future of the Italian football system. And we are also excited to collaborate with FIGC from an editorial point of view, bringing for the first time unreleased VAR content to the app that is able to excite fans and showcase the football product," commented Stefano Azzi, CEO of DAZN Italia.