On the day that England and Germany resumed hostilities in the World Cup in Bloemfontein, in another deeply divided part of the world representatives of the same two nations were using football for an entirely different purpose. In Israel and Palestine mixed teams of volunteer coaches from the University of Brighton in the UK and the German Sports University Cologne initiated a series of cross-community football projects for Jewish and Arab children in Tel Aviv, Beer Sheva, Jerusalem, and in the West Bank.
Beginning its tenth anniversary year, in collaboration with the British Council, Football4Peace embarked on its most widespread and ambitious programme to date with projects the length and breadth of Israel. For the first time, backed by Cologne City Council and the German Football Association, Football4Peace ran separate projects in Israel’s controversial capital, Jerusalem and on the other side of the wall in Bethlehem involving more than four hundred children. The second phase of the programme started the following Sunday with nine further projects in the North of Israel culminating in a Festival of Football for more than a thousand children and a tenth anniversary celebration in Nazareth.
For further information please contact Professor John Sugden 01273 643729; Graham Spacey 01273 643777 or Dr. Gary Stidder 01273 643778
Information can also be found on the website www.football4peace.eu
