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06/10/11
Schools fundraise for F4P

Year 7 Pupils from the Bishop Bell School in Eastbourne particpated in a fund raising event for the F4P project on October 6th by hosting a F4P festival at their school. Pupils took part in a series of trust games, team building activitiues and football-related practice before particpating in a football festival which they refereed themselves, made their own substitutions and competed for the fair play award. The day was organised and facilitated by students from the Chelsea school of Sport and the Physical Education department from Bishop Bell school.

Previously this year, year 8 pupils from St Richard’s Catholic College in Bexhill raised £750 for the University of Brighton’s pioneering and ground-breaking Football 4 Peace Project. Co-founder Dr Gary Stidder spoke to the pupils during a school assembly about the project based in Israel and how sport is used to build cultural bridges between Arab and Jewish children. Gary then collected a cheque from the pupils and praised them for their outstanding effort. Gary said ‘We are extremely grateful to the pupils and staff from St Richard’s Catholic College for supporting the work of Football 4 Peace and would like to extend our sincere thanks on behalf of the children in Israel who will be participating this year’.

These are only two of many examples of the outstanding contribution from schools including Hayesbrook School, Tonbridge, Bishop Bell and Ratton Schools in Eastourne, The Grove School and Helenswood Girls School in Hastings and Tideway School in Peacehaven. Together the pupils and staff from thes schools have collectively raised in excess of £5000 to help the EU volunteers pay for their flights to the projects in Israel, Ireland and Jordan.

14/06/11
Sport as a Mediator between Cultures

Football 4 Peace is one of the key partners at this year's ICCSPE conference to be held in Israel (13-18th September). The conference focuses on sport's role as a mediator between cultures.

14/06/11
Sport and the Winds of Change: past, present and futures

Professor John Sugden, Director of Football 4 Peace, will be speaking at this year's International Sociology of Sport Association World Congress (July 10-17 2011).

03/04/11
Emily Leighton-Smith shares her thoughts on day 3 of the training camp

April Fools’ Day was the third day of this year’s training camp. Despite the uncomfortable morning weather, the majority of coaches excitedly awaited the day’s activities. Moral was high and one could sense the bonds created between people of different cultures. The tier two coaches led the morning sessions, consequently, the other coaches acted as their players.

My group began the day with problem solving activities. For the first time, I experienced Israelis leading a session. It was interesting to see how they coped with the language barrier. This helped me realise that coaching children in Israel who do not speak English may be challenging. The morning sessions were well delivered and have increased my awareness on what kind of activities I can use in Israel in order to break down barriers between people, whilst still making these activities enjoyable.

The afternoon sessions were led by tier one coaches, thus we were busy planning our sessions during our lunch break. For many people it was to be their first experience of coaching using the F4P manual. Personally, I found planning our session challenging because of the cultural and language barriers. However, it gave me an insight into how these challenges can be approached. It also made me aware of the importance of demonstrations whilst coaching in Israel; it is important to over-emphasise actions and use demonstrations rather than simply talk at the children. The session we ran went fairly well, but it is evident that there is still need for some of us to further understand how to apply the activities in a manner that will tease out the F4P values.

Even though this project is aimed at children when we are in Israel, I feel that this training camp has brought us adults closer together.

03/04/11
Laura Coleman reflects on day 2 of the training camp

Thursday, the 31st of March, was the second day of this year’s F4P training camp. We set off to Falmer campus (University of Brighton) at 8am with some of us wishing we could have spent an extra hour in bed.

Along the way we passed the impressive Brighton and Hove Albion Stadium before finally reaching our destination. We split up the coaches into smaller groups and then headed towards the astro turf pitches. In order to brighten our moods, which were being tested by the grim weather, we decided to take a few photos while waiting for the session to start.  The tier three coaches led the on and off pitch activities for the day. These sessions enabled us, and in particular the new coaches, to enhance their understanding of the F4P methodology.

After the morning sessions finished we all went for lunch before travelling on to Brighton. Myself and some other tier 2 coaches did a tour which included visiting the pier, the shops, the lanes and upon request, a shisha bar. Cultural differences were evident when we entered one of Brighton’s Pound shops; I have never seen anyone spend so much money on chocolate like the Israelis. This, of course, made several of us happy when we saw the amount of chocolate that had to be eaten.

My highlight of the day must have been seeing everyone come together in Brighton, for the reason that they left their usual social groups and spent time with other community members. By the time we got on the bus at 7pm in order to return back to Eastbourne, we were all ready to rest after what had been an excellent day.

01/04/11
Chris Pyke's impressions of the training camp

As a first time coach with Football 4 Peace, Chris Pyke, a student at the University of Brighton, shares his first impressions on the project.

10/03/11
University of Brighton prepares to host F4P 2011 training camp

Chelsea School of the University of Brighton will host this year's F4P training camp from March 29th to April 3rd. With over 120 participants coming from Israel, Jordan, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Germany and the UK, this training camp truly is an internaional event.

[Press Release]

10/07/10
2010 project: a coach's perspective

Gabriel Ayerh shares his thoughts regarding the summer 2010 F4P project in Israel. He expresses his role as a coach and the developments he was able to observe whilst working with a group of Arabic and Jewish children from Hura and Be'er Sheeva.

11/06/10
UK pupils raise money for F4P

Chelsea school senior lecturer and co-founder of F4P in Israel, Dr Gary Stidder, received a cheque for £523.75 from pupils at Hayesbrook school in Tonbridge at an assembly to mark the start of the World Cup in South Africa on June 11th. Pupils had raised the money during the year in support of the football4peace project as part of their efforts to raise awareness of the potential of sport for building cultural bridges and social relations as well as peaceful co-existence.

02/06/10 - 03/06/10
Cascade Training 2010 -
A new approach to a more sustainable programme in Israel

The first week of June will see 140 coaches and trainers from over 32 cities and villages from all over Israel, coming together to participate in a special training workshop taking place in the Upper Galilee region.

The participants are current coaches and trainers involved in the F4P programme who will train new coaches.  The new participants will have a chance to learn from the veteran coaches and trainers the special aspects of the F4P educational methodology. This event will also serve to bond the teams of Arab and Jewish professionals that will work closely together later this summer, teaching the F4P methods to children and youth of Israel.

The strong ties that have been built over the years between the communities within Israel and the teams of students from the United Kingdom and Germany will manifest in the visit of Senior lecturers, John Lambert (Chelsea School, University of Brighton) and Adrian Haasner (German Sports University, Koln) to mentor the trainers.

The training and the visit are a preparatory stage for the exciting sporting events that will take place in the different communities in Israel during the months of June and July.  The F4P family will then celebrate the 10th anniversary of Football 4 Peace.

 [Pictures]  [Download Manual hebrew]   [Download Manual english]

05/05/10 - 09/05/10
Training Workshop 2010 in Cologne

The German Sport University Cologne has hosted the F4P training workshop in 2009. The camp took place  from 5th to 9th  of May. Around 110 participants from Israel, UK, Ireland and Germany were trained in the F4P methodology.

 [Pictures] 

02/03/10
Conflict Prevention and Resolution: the Role of Cultural Relations

There is an increasing recognition that to be successful long-terms strategies relating to defence and security must be bound up with efforts to promote conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peaceful co-existence. This was the theme of an International Conference, organised by the Brussels-based think tank, the Security Defence Agenda, in cooperation with NATO and the British Council, held in the Belgian Capital on March 2 2010.

Speakers included Martin Davidson, Chief Executive, British Council, Martin Howard, Assistant Secretary General for Operations, NATO (above), Brigadier Hamza Visca, Joint Staff Post-conflict Reconstruction, Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ilana Bet-El, Political Analyst, Catherine Fieschi, Director, Counterpoint, British Council, and Colonel Per Mikkelsen, Deputy Branch Chief Joint Operations, NATO.

John Sugden, Professor of Sociology at the University of Brighton and Director of Football 4 Peace International, also made a keynote address. Drawing upon more than twenty years of experience working with sport as a vehicle to promote cross community relations in societies in conflict, professor Sugden stressed the significance of the cultural dimension to peace building, arguing that ‘hearts and minds’ cannot be won through the barrel of a gun. 

 [Pictures] 

01/03/10
Football 4 Peace 2010 planning underway

Football 4 Peace in Israel will celebrate its tenth anniversary this summer. Planning is well underway as Professor John Sugden, Dr Gary Stidder, Graham Spacey and Adrian Haasner met with the British Council and Israeli Sport Authority in order to prepare for this summer’s event. The team from Brighton and Cologne met with key partners in Nazareth, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as well as making visits to the Bedouin communities in the south and to Bethlehem University in the West Bank. This year the project will run in two phases between June 26th and July 9th involving sixteen hundred Arab and Jewish boys and girls, fifty UK and German volunteers as well as over one hundred Israeli community sports coaches.

 [Pictures] 

20/02/10
Happy Birthday Football 4 Peace

For Football 4 Peace 2010 marks its tenth anniversary and plans to celebrate its continuing success are underway.

Helped by European Union funding and support from the cultural foundation of the German Football Association (DFB) and Cologne City Council, this year the project has nearly doubled in size, allowing more communities from Israel and Jordan to benefit from newly formed Cross Community Sport Partnerships (CCSPs). 

2010 will see a series of events throughout the year starting with the selection and training of coaches who will then run small scale cross community sporting events in local areas overseas.  An international training workshop will be hosted for the third time in a row by the German Sport University Cologne with financial support of PRODYNA, an IT consulting company from Frankfurt. The German Sport University and PRODYNA agreed to extend the strong partnership in 2010 by supporting F4P events all over the year.

The anniversary year will end in two weeks of intensive sport coaching programmes run  by  volunteer students from University of Brighton and German Sport University.  These will culminate in large ‘Fair Play Football Festivals’ wherein children form different communities will compete together in mixed teams

The Manchester United Foundation is  also sending three coaches to be trained by F4P and experience the work in Israel.  The long term hope is that there will be a mutual benefit between the two organisations through the development of coaching methodology as well as collaboration in the future on projects.

F4P has also secured funding from the City of Cologne to run a pilot ‘girls only’ project in Bethlehem – Cologne is twinned with Bethlehem  - in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.  It will be the first time F4P has worked in the West Bank and measure are being put in place to ensure its success.  The project will be run independently to those in Israel.

F4P Ireland is growing stronger each year and continues its cross border work between Northern Ireland and the republic of Ireland.  The project funding has been secured by the Irish FA and FA of Ireland from Inishowen Development Partnership.  By the end of 2010, four coaches will be able to train other coaches in the F4P methodology with two joining the team in Israel to see how things are done there.

Professor John Sugden will be delivering  a keynote address on Football 4 Peace in Brussels in March.  Sponsored by the British Council and NATO’s Security the event will showcase and discus civil society interventions as an alternative to military options in deeply divided societies.  The event is entitled ‘Conflict Prevention and Resolution:  A New Role for Cultural Relations?’ He will address a similar theme as a keynote speaker at the Leisure Studies Association Annual Conference later in the year.

Since the launch of its new website, F4P has received just over 158,000 hits.  These have peeked to nearly 25,000 a month during the recruitment period which explains the increase in applications from students across the world.  We have also been inundated with requests for help and requests to set up projects in various places and spaces across the globe.  Unfortunately we are not yet in a position to expand at a huge rate without jeopardising our current work.  We are in talks with Alive & Kicking, an NGO based in Kenya to find funding to start up a project and league based on the values of F4P and inspired by a television programme bringing young people from various tribes and groups in Kenya together after the recent serious political violence.

19/02/10
English Communication Skills for F4P

This year we have the great opportunity of deepening the impact of the coaches’ training by introducing an English language learning component. This English communication skills course will greatly improve intercultural communications and the professional development of the coaches and leaders. The added value of learning English together will also help strengthen the network across the 36 communities involved in the project. In addition, the 60 coaches will benefit personally from improved English skills.

The courses, involving up to 60 coaches and leaders and taking place in venues both North and South of Israel, have been sponsored by the Clore Israel Foundation.The Clore Israel Foundation is a grant-giving foundation established by the late Sir Charles Clore in 1965. The Foundation has been at the forefront of charitable endeavours in Israel since its establishment. The Foundation's support is extended to large and small organisations alike, for projects which range from major construction and renovation of buildings, to less high-profile projects which nonetheless make a significant difference to the lives of the recipients.

[Clore Israel Foundation]

15/12/09
Football 4 Peace 2009 at a glance

To put things into perspective, this year alone, F4P has:

· Worked with over 2,500 children in Israel (North and South), Germany, Ireland (Rep of) and the UK in coaching projects, festivals and fundraising activities.

· It has trained nearly 125 coaches in the F4P methodology and worked alongside an additional 100 coaches and teachers from Israel, Germany, Ireland, UK, South Africa and Australia.

· Has successfully ran training camps / workshops in Ireland, Germany and Israel.

· Has juggled funding between the different partners in order for everyone to break even and all projects and activities to go ahead.

· Has attended conferences in Cyprus, UK, Germany, Israel, Australia and the Netherlands.

· Has received the endorsement of Sir Bobby Charlton.

06/12/09
Lisbon Marathon

Members of the F4P project were invited to run the Lisbon Marathon together with the project´s sponsor PRODYNA, an IT-consulting company from Frankfurt. In preparation for the challenge, the runners were given the opportunity to take part in a performance diagnostics at the German Sport University Cologne.

The marathon was the last of a series of events F4P and PRODYNA have undertaken together in 2009 (10 PRODYNA participants and 5 F4P participants). 10 Months earlier the F4P Year 2009 has started with the Dead Sea Half Marathon in Israel (6 PRODYNA participants and 10 F4P participants). It was agreed to continue the partnership in 2010

[PRODYNA]   [Pictures] 

02/11/09
International Seminar on "Sport in Post-Disaster Intervention"

Students of the German Sport University Cologne and F4P volunteers took part in ICSSPE´s (International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education) international seminar “Sport in Post-Disaster Intervention” held in Rheinsberg/Germany between 2 - 8 November 2009.

Led by international experts with experience in disaster relief, sport and physical activity, the workshop aimed at raising awareness of the challenges and the potential of using sport in post-disaster and conflict areas. While lectures emphasised psychosocial aspects such as coping with trauma, reconstruction and building resilience, practical sessions including inclusive games and team-building activities provided a wide range of ideas and suggestions for participants to plan and implement appropriate sport programmes.

Thanks to scholarships awarded by ICSSPE and funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, three students of the German Sport University Cologne and F4P volunteers (Olaf Haasner, Samuel Peter Herrmann, Abibula Tuerxun) were given the opportunity to take part in the very instructive and interesting seminar.

[ICSSPE]  

03/07/09
Sir Bobby Charlton joins F4P 2009 project in Israel

Manchester United and England football legend, Sir Bobby Charlton, and coaches from Manchester United Foundation join Football 4 Peace to train young Jewish and Arab footballers

10 July, Wingate Sports Institute: Press conference with Sir Bobby Charlton and Manchester United Foundation coaches

5-10 July: Football 4 Peace football camp;

9 July, Bet Shean:Football 4 Peace final tournament 

Now in its 9th year, Football 4 Peace is honored to welcome Sir Bobby Charlton in Israel. On Friday 10 July English football legend Sir Bobby Charlton together with coaches from the Manchester United Foundation will join Arab and Jewish children from the Football 4 Peace project at the Wingate Sports Institute for a special football coaching session to be followed by a press conference. After the press conference, 4 coaches from the Manchester United Foundation will lead a presentation and practical coaching session for professional coaches from Israel.

Sir Bobby Charlton will also be attending the Maccabiah Games during his time in Israel and will be leading out the Maccabi Great Britain team at the Opening Ceremony on Monday 13 July at the Ramat Gan International Sports Stadium.

Sir Bobby Charlton is perhaps the most famous English sportsman of the twentieth century and one of the greatest players of all time. He survived the Munich Air Disaster of 1958 to become the most recognizable face of the legendary Manchester United and England teams of the 1960s, including England’s World Cup winning team of 1966. Now knighted, Sir Bobby Charlton remains an iconic figure in the world sport contributing his unique experience of football to community and sports development.

Dedicated to promoting sport at home and abroad, Sir Bobby has willingly accepted the British Council and Maccabi GB invitation to take part at the Football 4 Peace project.

Sir Bobby said:
"Using football to bring different people together is an approach that we endorse as part of our community outreach at Manchester United. I am delighted to be extending this philosophy to Israel. It is a privilege to be working with Arab and Jewish youngsters and to be a part of Football 4 Peace project.”

[Press release British Council]     [Article British Embassy Tel Aviv]

15/06/09
Expansion of F4P

2009 F4P will be running 11 cross-community sport partnerships (CCSP) with three new communities. For the first time one CCSP will feature a group of children from Jordan; another will embrace a minority Cherka community and a third will be in the deep south in Beersheba and will engage a Bedouin community. The F4P management team is also exploring possibilities to work in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the West Bank.

24/05/09
Training Workshop 2009 in Cologne

The German Sport University Cologne has hosted the F4P training workshop in 2009. The camp took place  from 21st to 24th  of May. Around 80 participants from Israel, UK and Germany were trained in the F4P methodology.

[Pictures] 

01/05/09
Gary wins (AfPE) 2008 national award

Gary Stidder’s contribution to research and scholarship in the field of physical education has been recognised at the Association for Physical Education (AfPE) 2008 national awards held in Chester.

Commenting upon his award the Chelsea School senior lecturer said:

“I was very pleased to have received this prestigious award but was also over-whelmed by the occasion. It is extremely satisfying to know that what you are doing is worthwhile and to be recognised by your fellow professionals is certainly a great honour. The support of the Chelsea School has been a great asset and enabled much of this to be achieved.”

Gary’s achievement acknowledges his instrumental role in co-founding the Football 4 Peace project along with Professor John Sugden, which uses the medium of sport to bring together young Arab and Jewish boys and girls in Northern Israel. The project was selected as an example of best practice to be part of the European wide celebration, United by Sport, and now involves 1,400 children from 24 communities.

Gary graduated with a BEd PE degree in 1986 from Brunel University and completed his masters degree in Education at the University of Brighton in 1998. He taught physical education in the UK and USA for 13 years before becoming a senior lecturer at the university. He is currently the route leader for the Physical Education PGCE, is module leader for all outdoor and adventurous activity modules and is a secondary school link and subject leader. Gary was also co-editor with Sid Hayes of Equity and Inclusion in PE and School Sport published by Routledge. In 2003 Gary received the University of Brighton Award for Excellence in Teaching.

27/02/09
Boyd 'excels' for Irish FA

IRISH FA Head of Community Relations, Michael Boyd, won an Excel Leadership Award at the Management and Leadership Conference at the Waterfront Hall on Thursday, for leading the EU supported Football For All anti-sectarian campaign.

[more]

21/02/09
Running For Peace in the lowest point on Earth

20 members of the F4P project will run the ‘Dead Sea Half Marathon for Pecae’ in Ein Gedi, Israel.  PRODYNA, a company based in Frankfurt, Germany will send a group of runners and donate more than €10,000 to the initiative.  The event will also allow the management team to plan for the forthcoming training camp in Cologne, Germany and Summer projects in Israel.

[PRODYNA]

20/01/09
UK pupils raise money for F4P

Pupils from Thomas’s Day School in Battersea have once again raised a significant amount of money for the University of Brighton’s pioneering Football 4 Peace project based in Israel.

Children worked throughout the year on a number of fundraising events, notably a sponsored read at a penny a page. Co-founder and senior lecturer Gary Stidder was presented with a cheque for £11,830.71 from the head of the upper school during a school assembly and shared his experiences of the 2008 project with over four hundred pupils.

Football 4 Peace is now building upon the experiences of Israel and has made grass-roots interventions into the sport culture of Northern Ireland through the Gateway project and intends to develop this in Cyprus, The Philippines and South Africa while at the same time making a contribution to political debates and policy development around sport in those countries.

10/01/09
Diplome d`Honneur in Istanbul

In January 2009, F4P Project Director, Professor John Sugden, was in Istanbul to be recognised by the International Committee for Fair Play for his work in helping to develop this ground-breaking initiative. On behalf of the Project he was proud to accept the Organisation's coveted Diplome d'Honneur, at a gala awards ceremony held in the headquarters of the Turkish Olympic Committee.

01/12/08
Training Camp 2009 in Cologne

The German Sport University Cologne will host the F4P training camp in 2009. The camp will take place from 20th to 24th May. Around 80 participants from Israel, UK, Ireland and Germany will be trained in the F4P methodology.

27/06/08
3 Peaks Challenge a success

Students and staff of the University of Brighton and the German Sport University Cologne conducted the National 3 Peaks Challenge simultaneously in Great Britain and Germany in 24 hours to raise money for F4P.  All are now feeling battered, bruised and sore! 

The UK returned from completing the 3 Peaks National Challenge tired and in need of a good sleep.  The fastest individuals completed the epic hike in 22 hours and 23 minutes!  Their challenge involved ascending and descending the three highest peaks in Great Britain (Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scarfell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales) within 24 hours.  This included time travelling between each mountain.  The group considered a whole range of issues when planning the challenge and have been commended by the rescue teams for submitting route cards in advance and placing donations to the rescue teams.  They also considered environmental issues and have pledged donations to the National Trusts and Foundations who look after the peaks.

The German team covered the same ascent and descent but at higher altitudes as all three peaks were at the edge of the Alps (Zugspitze, Schneefernerkopf and Wetterspitzen) and in succession.  Their challenge did not include driving from one spot to the next but did involve ropes and a few hair raising cliff edges!  PRODYNA, a company based in Frankfurt sponsored the team.

[more]    [PRODYNA]

01/12/07
Partners Unite to Unite at Training Camp

The 2008 Training camp is to be held at the German Sports University Cologne in May. The event will officially mark the University as the new member of the Football 4 Peace partnership. The British Council in Israel and Israel Sports Authority will be sending over approximately 30 Arab and Jewish coaches to be trained up in the innovative methodology alongside approximately 50 students and staff from the University of Brighton and German Sports University. The event is now fully endorsed by our 5th partner, The (English) FA.

30/11/07
Michael Boyd wins MAMA

The Irish FA’s Head of Community Relations, Michael Boyd, received the prestigious award on Monday 19 Nov in Dublin at the 2007 Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (MAMA).  The award was for designing and implementing the IFA’s highly innovative 'Football For All' Community Relations Programme.  The programme includes 'Football Without Frontiers', a programme delivering football with an anti-racism and anti-sectarian ethos.

Michael is a founding member of 'Football Without Frontiers' and designed the IFA’s first Football For All strategy back in February 2000. He has given talks at UEFA and FIFA anti-racism conferences in Buenos Aries and Barcelona. He has also been a volunteer for and continues to be a valued supporter of the Football for Peace project.

[more]

20/11/07
F4P nominated for two awards

Football 4 Peace has been nominated for two prestigious awards:
1. The 'Showtec Sports Innovation of The Year' Award at the Sussex Sports Awards on      Friday 23rd December.
2.  The European Union 'United by Sports' Award in Berlin on Monday 26th November.

[Sussex Sports]     [United by Sports]

16/11/07
Sports Woman of the Year

Sarah Brown, wife of the Prime Minister presented the 'Helen Rollason Award for Inspiration' to Joanna Gardiner on Tuesday 20th November at the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards . The award was in honour of her inspirational and voluntary work with the Football for Peace project.

Joanna graduated from Sport & Exercise Science with PE last year and is currently half way through a PGCE in Physical Education at Chelsea School, University of Brighton. She has been working with the Football for Peace project since 2005 when she was in her first year at university. The award is in the name of Helen Rollason, former BBC Grandstand presenter who died of cancer 8 years ago and was also a former Chelsea graduate.

In response to the award Joanna said 'It is a massive honour but a hard feat to keep up when following in the footsteps of Helen Rollason and Jane Tomlinson. For me Football for Peace has taught me that football and sport can be used as a tool to bring out and demonstrate morals to young people. The game can be used to put these values into context -developing them for life. With the support of the project team I'm sure I can honour the legacy I'm now holding."

Joanna has also been shortlisted for the BBC South East Sportswomen of the Year Award on Monday 3rd December which could mean a hatrick for her if she also receives the 'USL Audio Visual Coach of the Year' Award at the Sussex Sports Awards on Friday 23rd November.

[Article in The Times] 

30/10/07
F4P at the IOC

Football for Peace presented the Israel programme at the 13th European Fair Play Movement Congress in Frankfurt. In attendance were Professor John Sugden from the University of Brighton, Gazi Nujidat from the Israel Sports Authority and Adrian Haasner from the Deutsche Sporthochschule, Koln.  The trio spoke with delegates and members of the International Olympic Committee on the impact the Football for Peace initiative has had at grass root levels in bringing communities from both sides together.

[European Fair Play Movement] 

28/09/07
F4P Consultancy in Northern Ireland

Football 4 Peace visited the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to witness the work of the new cross border 'Gateway Soccer' Project. The trip was organised by Damien McColgan who volunteered in the July 2007 project in Israel.  Four F4P coaches led by John Lambert, 'A' License Coach and Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton, worked with coaches and children from both sides of the border sharing the values and the coaching methodology that have been successful in Israel.
Irish FA Head of Community Relations and former F4P volunteer, Michael Boyd explained the significance of project at its launch: “With support from the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation, IRDL and Co-operation Ireland both the Irish FA and FA Ireland were happy to support the Gateway Project. Gateway is all about using football as a tool to promote Good Relations, using an innovative Value Based Coaching Manual and setting up sustainable relationships to promote positive inter-culturalism among boys and girls of all ability levels on both sides of the border in the North West. Gateway is first and foremost all about the promotion of positive Community Relations and the sport of football is the key to make this happen.”

17/07/07
German and UK coaches unite for peace

The 2007 Football4Peace Project has been another great success.  It has been our biggest and most ambitious endeavour to date.  For ten days in July a 50-strong team of UK and German Volunteers from the University of Brighton and the German Sports University in Cologne helped to stage 11 cross-community football projects that brought together 24 Jewish and Arab communities, involving more than one thousand children as well as more than a hundred local community sports leaders.

From its modest beginnings in the small Arab town of Ibilin, today, stretching from Acco and Shfaram in the North to Meggido and Um El Fahem in the South and from Jisr-e-Zerker in the West to Tiberias in the East, F4P embraces Arab and Jewish communities the length and breadth of Israel’s Galilee Region.

In addition to the dynamic, cross-community team-building that takes place around the values-based football coaching, off-pitch this year’s Project produced some truly memorable and heart-warming moments. For instance, in the encounters between children from Emek Hayardain, El Battouf and Beer el Meksoor, the Jewish children accepted invites into the homes of their new Arab friends and were hosted for lunch before commencing the football.  In the all-girl’s project one of the Arab girls went for a sleep-over in the home of a Jewish girl she had become friendly with.  Once again throughout Galilee, as the children enjoyed playing football with their new pals, existing relationships among community sport leaders were strengthened and new alliances formed.

Israel's Science, Culture and Sport Minister Raleb Majadele – the fist Muslim-Arab Minister to hold a Government portfolio - visited the boys’ and girls’ Festivals which took place on separate sites in Kibbutz Barquai. He addressed the children, celebrating the ‘power of sport to reach out across community divisions’, telling them that it was ‘their participation in projects like F4P that gave him hope for the future of Israel’.

In seven years Football4Peace has not only grown in both scale and quality, but also has become a key programme for the British Council in Israel and the lynchpin of the Israeli Sports Authority’s developing community relations policy for sport.  Planning is already underway for next year’s F4P adventures, including ongoing consideration, with the British Council and The (English FA), of mechanisms through which what has been learned and developed in Israel can be transferred to deeply divided societies elsewhere in the world.

The 2007 Project is a tribute to the memory of Frances Powney, a key member of the F4P team, who passed away prematurely in September 2005. Without her legacy this year’s achievements could not have been realised.

27/03/07
F4P at the England Game

The F4P team watched England draw 0-0 with Israel in Tel Aviv.  Whilst the result was disappointing the good cheer of the group was not damaged as the events of the day before were far greater than anyone expected.

As part of the 'Happening in the Park', a carnival to celebrate England's first game in the Holy Land since the late 80's, F4P teamed up with the British Council and England fans to run a children's football festival. Using F4P's values based approach to coaching and kits donated from clubs ranging from Man Utd to Gretna FC, 16 teams competed to win the FA ''Fair Play Award'.  The children, playing in mixed Jewish and Arab teams played through three rounds of a football tournament which emphasised fair play.

The day ended with Norwich City beating Crewe Alexandra 1-0 on penalties in the Boys competition with Nantwich winning the FA 'Fair Play' Award.  The girls competition proved a hit with the England fans watching on the sidelines as the team decked out in the England 1966 kit beat Wealdstone Away 1-0.  The runners up, Wealdstone Away also won the FA 'Fair Play' Award showing how to be successful and play the game the F4P way.
Media coverage of the event was widespread both in Israel and the UK. As well as local news, CNN, Skysports and Al Jazerra attended the tournament. Also a number of British newspapers covered the event. Click on the following articles below to read their reports.

[The Observer]     [Haaretz]    [The Telegraph]     [The Mirror]

15/03/07
Football 4 Peace receive shirts from McClaren

Members of the official supporters club, englandfans, have secured shirt donations from their local clubs to kit out the teams competing in a special Football4Peace tournament in Tel Aviv, which involves mixed teams of Jewish and Arab children.  The fans posed with their shirts with England Head Coach Steve McClaren, who presented them with a set of England shirts provided by FA partner Umbro for the tournament winners.

[more]

13/03/07
England fans join Football 4 Peace Party

On Friday March 23, the day before England’s crucial European Nations qualifier in Israel, volunteer staff and students from the University of Brighton are running a Football for Peace (F4P) tournament for Jewish and Arab boys and girls in a park in downtown Tel Aviv.

The Tel Aviv tournament, which is supported by the British Council, The British Embassy in Israel, the Israeli Sports Authority, and The (English) FA, will involve 160 boys and girls playing in 16 mixed teams. Each team will play in professional English club strips donated by English teams at the request of England fans’ associations and on the day will be supported colourfully and noisily by hundreds of England’s travelling faithful, representing a full spectrum of English league and non-league clubs.

The University of Brighton’s Professor John Sugden, one of the founders of F4P, is very excited about the tournament.  “This is a fantastic opportunity for us to raise the profile of what has grown to be one of the biggest cross-community programmes in Israel. There will be huge media interest in England’s vital qualifier. Having the F4P festival the Friday before the game, supported by England’s fans with their flags and mascots, will give us the chance to show a really positive side to English football and its fans, as well as send a strong message that there is a genuine willingness in Israel for different communities to work toward reconciliation and peaceful coexistence through sport”.

The event takes place in the riverside Hayarkon Park, beginning at 12 noon and finishing at 3pm with an awards ceremony presided over by Britain’s ambassador to Israel, Simon McDonald. The tournament will be the centre piece of a large and friendly Fans’ Festival which has been planned by the Tel Aviv municipality in the build up to England’s crunch game.

05/03/07
Football 4 Peace Training week a great success

40 Chelsea students worked alongside 35 Arabic and Jewish coaches from Israel in a five day training conference.  The training conference is now an annual event and is supported by the University of Brighton and the projects partners, The British Council in Israel and the Israel Sports Authority.  Staff from Chelsea School working on the project coached football skills and ran a series of activities encouraging team building, trust and problem solving to the new recruits to the project.  John Lambert, Senior Lecturer at Chelsea School has developed a coaching manual to encourage soccer coaches to use football skills to promote co-existence and unity in teams which forms the backbone of the training given to the volunteers. Alongside this, Senior Lecturer, Gary Stidder with Project Manager, Graham Spacey and Adrian Haasner, Lecturer at the Deutsche Sporthochschule, Koln have began developing a similar manual for off pitch / non-football based activities.

The volunteers from the UK will be in Israel this summer supporting their Israeli counterparts in delivering the Football 4 Peace co-existence curriculum based on these manuals to 1000+ children from both Jewish and Arab communities.
The 5 days ended with a Football Festival modeled on the Football 4 Pecace Festival to be held in Tel Aviv the day before England play Israel in the European Nations qualifier.  Over 100 children from Broad Oak and Horam Youth Football club were coached by the volunteers and then led through a 6 a side competition where the 'FAIR PLAY' award was the thing to win.  Project Manager, Graham Spacey stated that “the aim was to remind the children that football and winning was not the only thing. Football and competition are merely tools the project uses to bring people together and develop mutual respect and understanding between them.”

31/01/07
Euro Qualifier

F4P have teamed up with England fans and The FA to host a football festival and tournament for 200 Jewish and Arab boys and girls in a park in Tel Aviv on Friday March 23, the day before Israel take on England in a crucial European Nations qualifier in the national stadium.  In cooperation with the British Council and the Israeli Sports Authority, a team of volunteer coaches from the University of Brighton will run the 3 hour event which will involve colourful and noisy England fan groups adopting and supporting different children's' teams. There to help promote the New Israel Fund's 'Kick it Out', anti-racism campaign, England football heroes John Barnes and Brendan Batson will team up with the former Israeli International, Ronnie Rosenthal, and take part in F4P's football festival.

18/12/06
F4P on the Lebanon Border

14 volunteers from Chelsea School, University of Brighton finally made the annual trip to Israel to run the 2006 project.  The group spent 5 days working with 180 children from 18 different communities on a residential camp 5 kilometres from the border with Lebanon.  The children took part in a programme of team and partner activities designed to bring those from different communities together, challenge them and instill trust and a shared experience.  The children were then spent two days in mixed community groups following the Football 4 Peace values based football coaching programme.

The Football 4 Peace coaching programme highlights the social attributes of football in such a way that the participants not only develop ball skills and specific football knowledge but also consciously and unconsciously adopt, practice and endorse the fundamental principles of fair play, inclusion, respect, neutrality, trust, responsibility and equity.

The three day event culminated in a football festival where the children played in mixed community teams against each other. There were no referees as the children had to police their games themselves. The event went smoothly proving that in such a short time a lot of progress had been made.

The December project came about because of the conflict in northern Israel and Lebanon in the summer of last year, it was decided to postpone the July project until it was safer for volunteers to return. Those on the trip were heavily disappointed. Whilst they were queuing to check in at the airport, missiles fell on Nahariya and Nazareth , two of the cities where coaches would be based.  Graham Spacey, Project Manager stated “The safety of the volunteers and children came first and it was agreed by all staff and partners involved, both in Israel and the UK, to move the date of the project to when the situation in Israel and Lebanon was stable and safe. It was a hard decision as at the time no one knew when that would be.”

16/12/06
Frans Legacy

Frances Powney was a much loved and highly valued member of the F4P team.  Sadly, she fell victim to cancer and, though she fought bravely, Frances passed away in September 2005.  She is sorely missed by all of us.  She was a huge supporter of the initiative and one of her last requests was that any donations made in her memory should go to this cause.  Up to now more than £10,000 has been raised by her family and friends in her name.  Without this legacy it would have been very difficult for Football 4 Peace to meet its commitments for 2006/2007 and the project team are very grateful for all of those who have made generous contributions to our cause in memory of this wonderful woman.  She will always be in our hearts and may she rest in peace.

Anybody wishing to make a contribution to our cause in memory of Frances can do so by sending a cheque made out to the University of Brighton Foundation, and send it to Graham Spacey, Chelsea School, University of Brighton, Denton Road, Eastbourne, BN20 7SP.

24/04/06
Football 4 Peace at the Flora London Marathon

The Football 4 Peace network had 9 runners in the 2006 London Marathon aiming to raise funds for this years project. F4P Volunteer, Chris Howarth completed the course in an impressive 3 hours 15 minutes.  The F4P runners have been supported by all the coaches and staff involved in this year’s projects in their fundraising efforts.  Other sponsored events include the London to Brighton cycle race and the Eastbourne Half Marathon.  The aim is to raise enough money to secure the projects future and also to heighten awareness of the work taking place in Northern Israel in the UK.  If you would like to support these fundraising efforts please contact the Director, John Sugden.

13/04/06
Training Camp Report

The third annual training week for the Football 4 Peace project hosted by Chelsea School, University of Brighton was a huge success.  For five days the University played host to 25 Israeli football coaches from 22 different communities across the north of the country, three representatives from the Israel Sports Authority and two members of the British Council in Israel.  They took part in various trust and team building exercises, football coaching sessions, culminating with a festival of football attended by local side Broad Oak FC.
Gazi Nujidat from the Israel Sports Authority, who co-ordinate the project between the communities and the University, was delighted with the outcome of the weekend.  “I can say it was a very successful training week. All the arrangements went well and all the people connected to the project took on board the information very quickly. I can be sure that they got the message.
There is a lot of satisfaction from the coaches and I can draw encouragement from what they are saying.  We have already decided that in May we will get together and have 2-4 days refreshment of all the information that we got here, and also a training day for the local coaches. We have to prepare everything for when the UK coaches arrive.”

The project is now in its sixth year having grown from just two communities in 2000, but Gazi believes that slow and steady progress is best way forward.  “We are like wine,” he said, “our project is getting better and better with time as it is growing up. We are learning from the feedback sessions and from year to year we always try to improve.  The difference between us, and others projects is that we are doing it for the right motives, not just to write about it in the newspapers or see it on TV. For us it is more important to achieve something so we don’t want to run, we go step by step achieving this.”

30/03/06
Training Camp in Eastbourne

When the UK student coaches arrived on Friday morning many of them were surprised to find that the Israelis had in fact only met each other the day before.  After arriving in Eastbourne on the Wednesday night they were thrown straight into the deep end with a full day of trust activities and teambuilding exercises on the Thursday to help get to know each other.  Friday and Saturday saw them introduced to the UK student coaches, before coaching in the festival on Sunday, and a day of sightseeing and shopping round London on the Monday.  “We have 25 community coaches here”, said Israeli Sports Authority representative Gazi Nujdat.  “Thirteen of them are Arabs and 12 are Jewish, and we can say that it is very encouraging. The group understands the motives and they are committed. The moment you see the discussion points you see that they are asking and are trying to swallow all the information in order to succeed in this project.  Sometimes you hear from the newspapers and the TV and you get your ideas, you put barriers between you and the others. The moment you have unconditional and unlimited meetings with others, when you come to a place like Eastbourne and sit, eat, drink together and talk together they get to the conclusion that maybe that’s wrong.”

“Someone is supposed to be a bit different, a bit dangerous even, but really he is like my neighbour and my friend. That’s what we gain by having them here and trying to put them in these situations.  Even in the dining rooms we put Arabs and Jewish together and that’s something in the past we’ve had to be more sensitive to because of habit, but today before they come here they asked to be together. From the beginning they are committed to the idea and that is something that makes you more optimistic.

“We are always reminding them that, OK you come here and live together but you must go back and deliver this to your local coaches who will work on the project in the summer.”

Chaim Nadler from Menashe and Mohammed Yousef from Arab Dabouriya, spoke of their commitment to the project and desire for peace in their country. “I am the manager of a very big club,” said Chaim, “which has 50 percent Arabic and 50 percent Jewish children. I have been running my own project for seven years as well as being involved with this project for three.  I hope we can back to Israel with a lot of new ideas. I have another of my coaches here with me. He works with both Arab and Jewish children all the time, and I hope that others from other clubs will now start to do this.”

06/03/06
Football 4 Peace documentary film

Football 4 Peace has recently been the subject of a documentary film.  Made by a prize winning German film maker, Simon Jocker, Children of the Jordan Valley follows one of our German volunteers, Adrian Haasner, coach in a project in Northern Israel in July 2005.  Scheduled for release in summer 2006 to coincide with the FIFA World Cup in Germany, the film promises to be a successful showcase for the project and meditation on the power of football to change lives.

[see Trailer]