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Soccer can
eliminate prejudice
Soccer network with a social mission
One year on
01/2006 |
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[ Conflict prevention ]
Soccer can
eliminate prejudice
Young people playing soccer practise fair and tolerant behaviour. They learn to settle conflicts peacefully. InWEnt promotes such approaches through its “Football for Development” project. D+C/E+Z talked to the man responsible for the project, Albrecht Ansohn.
[ Interview with Albrecht Ansohn ]
This year, Germany will host the World Cup. Since last year, InWEnt has been promoting football for the first time. By design or coincidence?
The World Cup is naturally a good opportunity to take a closer look at the links between football and development. But that is not the reason for InWEnt’s involvement in this sport. There is a massive amount of social energy in football. Sports – and especially a team game like soccer – can have a very positive impact. That, in itself, is ample reason to scan one of the world’s most popular games for development-relevant potential. There also is a global dimension. Football is played all over the world. Stars like Zidane, Nedved and Ronaldinho are known to youngsters from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego. Those are good arguments for focusing on football.
The United Nations proclaimed 2005 as the International Year of Sport. Can sport make the world a better place?
It would certainly be naive to think that more sport would automatically make the world more peaceful. Sport is as complex and contradictory as life itself. And soccer, in particular, has a destructive side as well – an ugly side that we get to see all too often: from brawls staged by rioting fans to “international situations” at government level – just think of the “soccer war” between Honduras and El Salvador. Therefore, it is important to ensure that – whereever we promote sport – we agree on rules beneficial to development.
What form might that beneficial impact take?
At InWEnt, we view football in more than one light. First of all, we see it as another way to promote development and exchange. In a narrower sense, we regard football as an instrument for preventing violence. Football promotes social cohesion and dialogue. Practising fairness and tolerance succeeds here because all involved need to observe a defined set of rules and behave fairly towards each other. Where that is achieved, common prospects can develop.
How does this works?
Sport is a powerful integrator. Many young people who grow up in difficult circumstances lack a meaningful purpose in life. So getting them interested in anything – whether it is music or sport – is a big achievement in itself. Team sport has a pedagogical advantage. It requires a variety of positions to be filled, which forces youngsters to put themselves in another person’s shoes – including those of an opposing team player, for instance. In some forms of street football, that is also guaranteed by the rules the teams agree on. They can decide, for example, that only girls may score goals. Other rules might strengthen social bonds. Our Kenyan partner, the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MSYA), hitches youngsters’ passion for football to the wagon of social responsibility. Teams that clear a certain amount of garbage from local streets are awarded extra points. Particularly committed young people, who perform additional social work, are rewarded with educational scholarships. The organisers thus combine sport with social and personal development.
Are team sports better suited to promoting social behaviour?
I think team sports are better suited because players always have to cooperate to achieve their objective. And that is not all: the number of people that identify with team sports is also greater. There are risks too, of course, like the risk of fans rioting. But team sports per se teach people the need for tolerance and observance of rules.
From a development angle, what criteria need to be met to harness football effectively?
We are building on the experiences of our partner “streetfootballworld”, which networks football projects with a social dimension worldwide. Basically, though, the criteria that apply are the same as for all projects. We need development-oriented actors. Football schools in Africa and Latin America earn a great deal of money nowadays by talent-spotting youngsters and grooming them for the European market. But that has nothing to do with development. Our aim is to serve as many of the youngsters involved as possible. They need to see themselves in context: better education, higher quality of life in the neighbourhood, and so forth. That is the criterion on which our decision to support a project ultimately depends.
Who is behind streetfoodballworld?
streetfootballworld is a project of the Youth Football Foundation, an initiative launched by a group of players from the 1990 German World Cup team. Their intention was to do more to promote children and teenagers and, at the same time, exercise social commitment. Germany’s national coach Jürgen Klinsmann, as initiator of the Youth Football Foundation, is a major supporter of streetfootballworld. streetfootballworld sees its mission as linking football projects worldwide – which dovetails neatly with our developmental objectives. The result is a good and fruitful partnership.
How does kicking a ball develop social skills and promote exchange between ethnic groups, religions, et cetera?
Football is never an answer on its own. But in situations where hostile groups come face to face, playing football can be an important first step towards reconciliation. What sport offers is a chance to engage in peaceful competition governed by clear and categorical rules instead of clashing as aggressive – and perhaps unequally armed – rivals. What is more, for a game to be fun, opposing teams need to relate to one another in a meaningful way. If they don’t, the whole thing not only looks ugly; it is also no fun for those involved. Meeting at a predetermined place and playing according to rules agreed on by the teams in advance is a tremendously complex act of cooperation and can usefully take the place of a cudgel or worse.
Playing according to a set of rules that everyone accepts seems to be key to achieving changes in behaviour...
No doubt about it. The educational objective is to get opponents to see one another as partners they respect and not as objects to be destroyed. That does not always work, of course. We see it in the Bundesliga, Germany’s top league, and in international tournaments. But there is a chance of it working. In many cases, just getting two teams to play against each other is a big achievement. It is the first step towards exchange and rapprochement. And that is not all: it is very likely that the teams will meet again, giving the losers a chance of revenge.
What does InWEnt expect to achieve through the “Football for Development” project?
We have four objectives. We want to take advantage of the World Cup spotlight and show not only how well developing countries perform on the pitch but also how useful a role football can play in local development projects. Secondly, we believe that we have a lot to offer in terms of football. That is why we invite young players from these projects to Germany. Thirdly, we want to heighten respect for what is being achieved in less developed countries. And last but not least, we want to stimulate more discussion in the development sector on how sports and development inter-relate. We are hoping for an interesting and prolonged exchange of ideas with other organisations. The whole thing is funded by our ASA programme of work and study stays in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Southeast Europe.
How is ASA involved?
ASA is a development education programme giving students and young professionals aged between 21 and 30 the chance to spend three weeks working with a partner in Africa, Asia, Latin America or Southeast Europe. ASA prepares the participants, provides a travel allowance and awards a scholarship for the duration of the stay. Each year, the InWEnt programme offers some 130 projects for students and professionals of a wide range of disciplines. ASA gives young people a chance to experience a different perspective for a while. The purpose of the encounters is to promote mutual understanding and encourage new solutions.
What kind of partners do you work with on the ground?
There is a sporting dimension. Nearly all the organisations were founded by socially committed professional footballers. MYSA, our partner in Nairobi, started in the early nineties with a professional team. Since then, Mathare United have been Kenyan champions several times. In Brazil, 50 former professionals and team-mates of Pelé are involved in “Rede Brasil 21”. These are soccer professionals who look beyond the dashboard. They also see the other dimension: the opportunity to reach many people and get them to act constructively.
What does InWEnt contribute to the projects?
We don’t sponsor the projects. For team jerseys or boots, the groups need to look elsewhere. InWEnt makes sure an exchange takes place. We arrange for young, committed multipliers from the world of sport to be sent to the projects and we receive and look after visitors in the other direction. To accommodate the guests from developing countries properly, for example, we work together with the regional sports youth associations in Hamburg and Baden-Württemberg. That way, we ensure that where the guests from the South spend their time in Germany, football is also combined with social activities. Aside from that, InWEnt contributes to the discussion and analysis of project content.
What will happen to the project when the World cup is over?
We have agreed with streetfootballworld that efforts will not peter out once the World Cup ends. We will review the project reports and consider how the experience gained can be usefully harnessed in a broader context. The 2010 World Cup is due to take place in South Africa. That in itself is an argument for staying on the ball for development.
Questions by Norbert Glaser.
Albrecht Ansohn
heads the ASA programme at InWEnt and is responsible for the “Football for Development” project.
albrecht.ansohn@inwent.org
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