A ground-breaking international project to bring divided communities together through the power of sport has returned to its spiritual home.
Football 4 Peace, which was started by a small number of passionate individuals at the University of Brighton's Chelsea School in 2001, went back to its roots for its 10th anniversary camp, which took place in Eastbourne. Over 130 coaches including Arab and Jewish Israelis, Jordanians, Irish and German nationals took part in a series of training exercises to prepare for the delivery of its programme in Israel this summer.
"The original concept was very simple," explains Prof John Sugden, Professor of Sociology of Sport at the Chelsea School, one of two university staff who set up the first Football 4 Peace programme. "There were a number of community groups locally who, together with the university, decided to go out to Israel. The idea was: 'Let's bring some kids together and get them to play football and see what happens.' That first project was just 60 kids, six volunteers a bag of footballs."
Since then, Football 4 Peace has grown to become an international movement funded by the EU, with its own coaching system, a community network in the Middle East stretching across Israel and into Jordan, and training camps with the University's partner in Germany, Deutsche Sporthochschule (Cologne). There is even a sister organisation in Ireland, Football 4 Peace Ireland, which uses football to bring together Protestant and Catholic sections of the community in the area around Derry/Londonderry.
"My first ever experience of this type of work was in Ireland," said Sugden, who is currently Director of Football 4 Peace.
"I was at the Univeristy of Ulster 1982-96 where I played in the university football team, which was a mixture of Catholic and Protestant young men. The university environment was one of the few places at that time where the two communities came together. I then went on to set up community version in the rougher areas of East and West Belfast, for young people, hoping to address and overcome some of the issues and problems raised by sectarianism."
Sugden's wish to build bridges between communities in divided towns is, he believes, central to the success of the organisation's mission.
"Our first partnership in Israel, between the Arab Israeli town of I'billin and the Jewish settlement of Misgav, is still going strong. It is the bedrock of the whole programme. From being focused on the kids at the beginning, in my view the networking of the communities and the community sport leaders is by far the most important part of our work. They are working together in ways that wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been there," he said.
"It's about forging these bonds between communities, bonds which will outlast any game or project."
Football 4 Peace involves student volunteers from UK and German Universities travelling to Israel, Jordan and Ireland with the specific aim of helping to build bridges in divided towns, villages and neighbourhoods. It uses its unique methodology and curriculum to coach football to mixed groups of Arab and Jewish children in Israel, refugees and local children in Jordan and children from either side of the border in the Republic and Northern Ireland.
This week's training camp event is designed to prepare volunteers for the main programme in Israel and Jordan during the summer, involving more than a 1,400 children, from 34 Arab and Jewish communities. Football 4 Peace's 12 Cross Community Sport Partnerships stretch from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the Negev Desert in the south and include projects in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
The camp in Eastbourne will be attended by 54 Arab and Jewish community sport leaders from Israel, 12 from Jordan, 9 from Ireland and 60 volunteer coaches from Universities in England and Germany.
The training camp culminated in a Festival of Football on Saturday 2 April with children from schools across Sussex and Kent, followed by a celebration ceremony at the Eastbourne Town FC vs Dulwich Hamlet FC match at Saffrons, Eastbourne.
"Eastbourne Town FC is delighted to welcome and host various organisations in this way, using football's family and reach to share and to showcase pioneering projects like F4P, that bring enormous benefit to communities, no matter where in the world they are," said ETFC Chairman, David Jenkins.
Eastbourne Town FC vs Dulwich Hamlet FC, Saturday 2 April. For more details visit www.etfc.biz
Photos: © Jens Wenzel jenswenzel-photography.com
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