Football School
Pink Arzilla: women’s and mixed football school in Pesaro
The Pink Arzilla is characterised by a girls’ and mixed team football school in Santa Maria dell’Arzilla, Pesaro, which includes Primi Calci, Piccoli Amici, Pulcini and Esordienti, i.e. all basic activities. The method we use is the Mixed Team method.
The Rookies take part in the Under 13 Men’s Championship, but there is also a Championship dedicated to the Chicks, with the difference that in this case only the girls would be involved: a regional Under 10 Women’s Tournament, for which the Pink Arzilla could field as many as twelve girls.
Mixed Team
The Mixed Team method is based on the concepts of inclusiveness and diversity as an opportunity and involves boys and girls playing together up to a certain age. It is a methodology I wanted to implement at Arzilla after seeing it around Europe and having tried it myself as a child. We saw that it bore fruit and it has also become the workhorse of the Raffa Manieri Academy.
The Mixed Team model brings technical and behavioural benefits for all players, male and female. On a technical level, it helps the girls develop more football skills. On a behavioural and social level, it contributes to the growing acceptance of women in football, fostering the idea of unity and cooperation both on the pitch and in life.
Educational projects
Precisely because it is important for us to transmit certain values, at Arzilla we adhere to various initiatives that we consider educational for the athletes. One very educational project was the one organised in 2023 by the municipality of Pesaro on gender difference and feminicide. We were chosen together with three other clubs and met with a psychologist. She talked to the boys and girls, touched on some very delicate topics and got them involved. It was a really good moment. We believe that it is essential to make children aware of certain issues from an early age and that is what we try to do.
Elite third level football school
We are a third level elite football school and of this we are very proud. For a club to be an elite football school, you have to choose a project that qualifies it, and at Arzilla in the last three years we have chosen women’s football, which requires the presence of at least forty girls in the youth sector, so from the Under-17s on down, and it is a number that we have reached in full.
There are four levels and the fourth is the highest, but nobody has it. In 2025 all clubs that have joined and continued the project should move to the fourth level.
