Small Town Of Calabria Gets EU Funds To Rebuild Shitty Town, Town Decides To Funnel Funds To Italian National Team

Instead of incorporating public funds into their livelihood, businesses and schools, the small non-touristy town of Calabria (a town shunned by most of Italy) has received a considerable sum of money by the European Union in order to jump-start its capacity to become a tourist destination. Yet, some public officials are frowning because Calabria has taken that to mean funneling the money into the Italian national team. Also, Calabria is the home of Italy’s more ferocious mafia, so, we’re gonna guess there’s some influence there.

Millions of pounds of European Union funds meant to help a poor region of Italy are set to be spent sponsoring the Italian national football team.
The regional government in Calabria, a southern province, wants the money to go on promotional branding during Italy’s World Cup campaign.
It would cost them 1.8m euros (£1.4m) over three years.
Regional officials argue it can help raise the profile of their area, both within Italy and overseas.
The idea is that the promotion will attract more tourists to Calabria.

It’s not a bad business plan, though the Italian team is one of the richest in the world (and most spoiled), but we’re guessing there’s one solution to Calabria’s lack of tourists: the mafia. Get them out of there and then we’re sure hoards of 60-year-olds from Wisconsin will be inhaling canolis by the dozen in no time.

Italian football to get EU funds [BBC]