Castel Volturno

Tam Tam Basketball

The TAM TAM BASKETBALL association aims to generate a positive impact on the lives of young people and on the development of immigrant communities, with a particular focus on social inclusion and equal opportunities through its sporting and social activities. It aims to give underprivileged young people a chance by offering them a healthy sporting activity totally free of charge (basketball lessons, participation with teams in youth championships, clothing), group and individual psychological assistance and after-school tutoring.

The association operates on the mouth of the Volturno river, on a 10 km strip of Campania coastline with the town of Castel Volturno at its center, the Italian town with the highest percentage of inhabitants of African origin, facing serious integration problems.

“I’m Sport Leader at Decathlon Giugliano in Campania, in the province of Naples. I’ve been working at Decathlon for 14 years, and since childhood I’ve always had a great passion for sports in general, and soccer and other team sports in particular. When I had the chance to get to know Massimo Antonelli, former Virtus Bologna basketball player and founder of Tam Tam, with his missionary desire to bring joy to children less fortunate than ourselves, I thought we could continue this battle with him through our Decathlon Foundation.

From that moment on, it was an emotional feat. With our project, we gave hundreds of young Africans the chance to integrate into our society through the values of sport! We organized weeks of Day Camp (the youngsters, while living in a coastal town, don’t know how to swim and for the first time got into the water!), Play days with basketball matches in collaboration with my store, training sessions, championship matches and much more! Thanks to the Foundation’s support, the association was able to buy the sports equipment it needed and a minibus to take the youngsters from their homes to the gym, as there is no public transport in the town and the distances are long.”

Giuseppe Chianese

Decathlon Giugliano

The association was born out of the passion of its members for basketball, almost all of whom are successful former players. The Americans call it “Giving Back Philosophy”, i.e. the desire to give something back to the community (basketball) that raised and trained them. That’s why the association operates in a context where young people, almost all of African descent, don’t have the opportunity to play sports because their parents’ financial situation doesn’t allow them to. TamTam Basketball’s mission is to bring joy to young people through the values of sport.

Tam Tam’s youngsters, all children of immigrants, although born in Italy, are considered foreigners. The Italian Basketball Federation (FIP) stipulates that no more than 2 foreigners per team may play in youth championships. After several months of “battle”, the association succeeded in obtaining a derogation that allows it to play regularly in the FIP championships with all its boys.

The media clamor also raised awareness among ministers, and subsequently the Italian government inserted a norm called “NORMA TAM TAM BASKET”. This standard stipulates that all foreign minors living in Italy and attending school for at least a year have the same rights as Italians in the leagues.

A safe environment and a springboard for the future

“I’m Massimo Antonelli, president and founder of the Tam Tam association. The Decathlon Foundation was the first foundation to believe in the Tam Tam project, believing in it from the start and understanding the social importance of the project from the outset, perceiving the association’s needs. For me, it all started like a dream, I couldn’t even imagine the size of the project, but the Décathlon Foundation saw it and helped us make it a reality. The first project enabled us to continue our activities for the first three years, thanks to the clothing and equipment financed, and eventually contributed to the purchase of a minibus which enabled us to take the children to the gym in complete safety. In short, the first project gave us wings. The second project with the Decathlon Foundation saw the participation of other associations/foundations, given that Tam Tam is now known in Italy and around the world. We succeeded in transforming an unusable communal gymnasium into one of the most beautiful and technologically advanced training gyms in the Campania region.

A question I often ask myself: what has the Decathlon Foundation done for Tam Tam? It gave us a house to live in and do sports.”