Not just competition, trophies and rankings. TO Milan football becomes an educational language, an opportunity for redemption and a concrete tool for social reintegration.
It is in this perspective that the Inter has chosen to join the new Italian edition of Twinning Projectan internationally recognized program that uses sport to accompany people in detention or subjected to criminal measures towards a different future.
The first Italian session of the project started on January 30th, promoted by Twinning Project ETS with the support of Enel Heartthe philanthropic body of the Enel Group, which sees the Nerazzurri club at the forefront in the creation of a training and rehabilitation program through football in the Milan area.
A boy with the project brochure
(Inter via Getty Images)
An educational alliance in the area
The route takes place at Kayros Community, educational reality founded by Don Claudio Burgio and which for years has welcomed minors and young people subjected to criminal or probation measures. In this first phase, Inter renews a collaboration already underway, making the coaches of its youth sector available for a project that goes well beyond the teaching of sporting techniques. For three months, with weekly meetings and a total of 36 hours of training, participants follow a path that combines basic preparation for coaches with deeper work on the so-called soft skills: communication, teamwork, leadership, conflict management, reflection skills. At the end of the course, a diploma will be issued, a concrete sign of a completed journey.
From the field to daily life
The final objective is not just educational. In fact, Inter aims to include some of the participants alongside the technicians who follow the social teams supported by the Club, thus opening a real window towards the world of work. A decisive step, if we consider that access to stable employment drastically reduces the risk of recidivism.
The numbers of the Italian prison system tell a complex reality: approximately 62,000 adult prisoners, an overcrowding rate that exceeds 130% and recidivism that reaches up to 70%. Yet, where structured work reintegration paths exist, recidivism drops to minimal values. It is in this space of possibility that the Twinning Project fits in, with the ambition of transforming the time of punishment into a time of growth.
Born in the United Kingdom in 2018 in collaboration with the British Prison Service and the world of professional football, the project has already involved over 6,000 participants around the world and has twinned, in England alone, 73 clubs with penitentiary institutions. Since 2023, with the support of FIFA, the initiative has expanded internationally, also arriving in Italy.
Some images of the course run by the coaches of the Nerazzurri Youth Sector at the Kayros facilities
(Inter via Getty Images)
After a pilot phase with AS Roma in the Rebibbia prison, 2026 marks a decisive step: the Twinning Project will be launched in five Italian cities, with particular attention to younger prisoners. An expansion also made possible by the support of Enel Cuore, which has been involved with the third sector in projects with a strong social impact for over twenty years.
Several independent studies, including research from the University of Oxford and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, have already highlighted encouraging results on the effectiveness of the program. Now Twinning Project ETS is in dialogue with Italian universities to start similar analyzes in our country too.
In a time in which prison risks remaining a place of permanent exclusion, initiatives like this remind us that punishment can and must also be an opportunity for redemption. And that sport, when experienced as an educational and relational tool, can become a training ground for humanity, capable of restoring trust, responsibility and a future.
