The Sports Associations in Italy: Educational and Competition.

In Italy sport plays an important role in social and cultural life. Its educational function and that of sport associations are not obvious for different schools of thought. This paper assumes functional and operational definition of education, as transmission of knowledge and the opportunity of favoring social interactions. With the purpose of interpreting the ongoing situation, the paper treats the evolution of relationship between sport associations and political institutions in a historical perspective, and describes the current situation of Sport Promotion Agencies and not for profit Associations, and their asymmetrical distribution between North and South Italy. The educational purpose of Sports Associations actually shows lights and shadows. The lights regard the strong capability to bring people together during the practice of amateur or agonistic sport even though many shadows affect the possibility to express a fair judgment on actual capability to transmit high sport moral values. 

Keywords: Sport, Education, Associations, Public Institutions, North - South Divide.