Sports Index: Palermo steps up a gear and invests 50 million in facilities
A region with problems that are all too familiar to those in the South, so much so that its 74th-place ranking in the Sporting Index of Italian Provinces (compiled, as always, by Pts Sport) means it has left 27 southern regions behind and only six in the Centre-North.
Let’s talk about Palermo, its provincial capital (the sixth-largest municipality in Italy by population) and its province. Its overall ranking in the 2026 edition of the Index enables it to outperform Sicily’s other metropolitan area (Catania, 77th), and to finish in second place in the regional rankings, which are led by Messina (72nd) and feature three other Sicilian cities from 100th place onwards (in order: Enna 101st, Caltanissetta 104th and Agrigento second-last in 106th place).
In the broad categories covering the various indicators, Palermo ranks 84th for sports facilities (where, amongst other things, the number of registered members and participants, the appeal of sporting events and the opportunities to practise various disciplines are taken into account), 71st for team sports, 65th for individual sports and 70th for the ‘links’ between sport, society and the economy.
The 74th place in the overall ranking is 10 places higher than the 2025 result, is above the 20-year average for rankings (according to which Palermo would be 79th) and represents the best performance achieved since 2016. In terms of individual indicators, the worst result is 100th place in the ‘sport and territory’ category – which measures the contribution made to local sport by organisations operating outside the provincial capital – – whilst on the positive side, the 15th place in ‘water sports’ (canoeing, rowing, sailing) and the 18th place in both Paralympic sport and the rate of participation stand out.
With regard specifically to the opportunity to practise various sports, Alessandro Anello, who has served as Councillor for Sport and Youth Policy for the City of Palermo since 2023, is keen to emphasise the local authority’s commitment to the refurbishment of sports facilities.
