Getting onside for World Peace Day

The annual Football4Peace international training camp will bring together pupils from 14 local schools with delegates from Ghana, South Africa, South Korea, Czech Republic and Northern Ireland at the University of Brighton’s Falmer Campus.

Principal Lecturer and co-founder of Football4Peace, Dr Gary Stidder said: “This is going to be a fantastic event and a wonderfully powerful way to mark World Peace Day.

“Football is an international language. The Football4Peace curriculum and methodology has helped to challenge prejudices and foster understanding in some of the most divided societies on the planet. It has touched the lives of over 8,000 children, nearly 600 coaches and some of the sport’s leading institutions from England’s Football Association, to the Korean Sharing Movement and University of Johannesburg in South Africa.

“Our international training camp, being held on World Peace Day, is a great way to involve local school pupils in a values-based approach to sport that emphasises respect, inclusion and responsibility.”

Since 2001, academics from the University of Brighton have been working with sports and voluntary organisations around the world to help heal fractured societies and promote a fairer world. Football4Peace (F4P) emerged from a partnership between researchers at the University of Brighton and the World Sports Peace Project in Israel.

World Peace Day — officially The International Day of Peace — is observed annually on 21 September. It was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly to coincide with its opening session, which was held annually on the third Tuesday of September. The first Peace Day was observed in September 1982.