A long night oFFootbAll FoR gooD 12th mAy 2017, 18:00-22:00 - ADiDAs bAse beRlin

A long night oFFootbAll FoR gooD 12th mAy 2017, 18:00-22:00 - ADiDAs bAse beRlin

For the second consecutive year the German Federal Foreign Office staged a “Long Night of Ideas” (“Lange Nacht der Ideen”) as part of the “Moving People” Forum. On the evening of Friday, 12th May, 17 distinctive venues in Berlin’s cultural landscape opened their doors to the general public to showcase how cultural practice can serve to implement German Federal Foreign policy.

streetfootballworld joined 16 other organisations to allow people to experience football for good in action with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office. The event took place at adidas BASE in Berlin, sporting the title: “Saving the World: Street football, Culture and Peace” (“Nur noch kurz die Welt retten: Straßenfußball, Kultur und Frieden”) to demonstrate the transformative power of the game – on and off the pitch. The evening was organised in collaboration with the Berlin network “Football, Diversity, Perspective” (“Fußball, Vielfalt, Perspektive”), whose other members include the social football projects RheinFlanke, FC Internationale, buntkicktgut, the Berlin Fußballverband, Amandla EduFootball, and DISCOVER FOOTBALL.

The action-packed evening included a panel discussion, a photo exhibition, a football3 tournament, cultural presentations by community organisations from Lebanon and Cambodia and, of course, a catering spread to round off a successful evening

In the warm glow of a sunny Berlin evening participants queued at the entrance of adidas Base, a former Berlin Transport Company (BVG) tram depot, to register for the football3 tournament. Past the smaller pitch cages of the venue, where local youth where furiously kicking around footballs, visitors streamed to the main pitch. At 18:00 Stephan Kaußen, who regularly works as a football commentator and live reporter on Bundesliga matches, took to the microphone and present the evening, which kicked off with a panel discussion including streetfootballworld Associate and Partnerships Director, Johannes Axster, German Bundestag MP (MdB) Matthias Schmidt, Juliane Metzner from streetfootballworld network member RheinFlanke, DISCOVER FOOTBALL’s Friederike Moeller and special guest Sofian Chahed, football coach and former professional footballer.

Panellist Friederike Moeller summed up: ”For me the discussion showed that football is more than professional football – it can achieve so much on a societal level. It’s about social togetherness.”

stReetFootbAllwoRlD hosts A FootbAll FoR gooD even-ing As pARt oF A multilAteRAl event AcRoss beRlin sup-poRteD by the geRmAn FeD-eRAl FoReign oFFice

“Social togetherness” or cohesion was something the audience would next be able to witness in practice: streetfootballworld’s George Springborg announced the football3 tournament – a football match where “fair play takes centre stage.” He proceeded to call out the members of the six mixed teams who would take the pitch in ten matches. “Let’s rock the house!” presenter Stephan Kaußen boomed into his microphone. The teams enthusiastically delivered for the fast-paced and often technical matches.

In parallel to the tournament representatives from ANERA in Lebanon and SALT Academy in Cambodia had travelled especially to Berlin to give first-hand accounts about how football is changing the lives of people at a local level. One of the aims of the programmes implemented all across the world is the promotion of youth leadership to expand their reach and ensure sustainable change.

To add an artistic touch to the evening, a photo exhibition flanked the main pitch. The images showed 16 Young Leaders who participated in the “Youth Forum 2016” in Lyon supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, as a testimony to the positive impact football has had in the lives of these young people. The pictures were taken by photographer Dana Rösiger, who was present to speak about her work: “My contribution is to make the children and young people that streetfootballworld and other organisations reach visible.”

After just over two hours, FC Friendship (“FC Freundschaft”) won the tournament bagging a prize of streetfootballworld backpacks. 25-year-old Eva Köhler, who plays for FC Kreuzberg, was among them and shared her excitement over participating in her very first football3 match: “What I liked the most was that we played in mixed teams and with people from different nationalities with fair play rules.”

FootbAll3 touRnAment: A FootbAll mAtch wheRe FAiRplAy tAKes the centRe stAge

“Even though we mixed players from different backgrounds and organisations together, it was amazing to see how quickly they were able to come together. I think that’s what is amazing about football, and sport - how fast it can bring people together, working towards one common goal”, said event organiser Louis Moustakas.

Time spirit pervaded the entire evening, not only by bringing together football players from a variety of backgrounds to play on the same team, but also by gathering the two international team players and the local football for good network.

We would like to extend our thanks to all of those who made the evening possible and to the general public for their interest in discovering the world of football for good.

leARn moRe

www.streetfootballworld.org

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streetfootballworld is a global NGO that harnesses the power of soccer for good. We’re building an alternative vision of the game: focusing the universal passion for soccer on tackling the greatest social challenges of our time. Our work supports a worldwide network of grassroots organisations that place soccer at the heart of sustainable social change. From refugee integration in Ireland to gender equality in Kenya, we’re changing the world through soccer.

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