Football 4 Peace...Rugby 4 Peace: how sport is bringing intercultural cooperation to communities in conflict

The far-reaching significance of the Football 4 Peace programme

New partnerships in the conflict-affected countries of South Korea, The Gambia, and Colombia have been developed with established bodies or through the creation of new non-governmental organisations. Working from the grass roots with partners from the private, public and voluntary sectors, Football 4 Peace supports agencies and institutions to adopt the methodology and delivery model for their communities. This approach generates sustainable processes, and this continuity and long-term action is vital to heal social divisions in unequal and unjust societies. 

The significance of the Football 4 Peace programme lies in the way in which sport can foster intercultural understanding and harmony. At its inception in Israel in the year 2000, the project worked with a handful of villages in the Galilee region. There, volunteer student coaches and staff from the University of Brighton established basic football coaching camps for Jewish and Arab children. Football 4 Peace has flourished from those modest roots following expanding partnerships with the British Council, The Football Association, and the German Sports University in Cologne. While it now has regional and international recognition and acceptance, it retains its original aims to build bridges and promote peaceful co-existence in conflict-torn communities.

Values-based football and sports coaching to promote peace  

The success of Football 4 Peace lies partly in its distinctive model for ‘values-based coaching.’ Drawing on theories of values-based learning, this has been developed using a set of core values: neutrality, equity and inclusion, respect, trust, and responsibility. This model is detailed in coaching manuals, embedded in training, and continually evolves through an iterative process of evaluation, research and intervention. All viewpoints are valued from every level of participation.

Researchers recognise that it is essential to have a deep understanding of the social context of the communities involved. Informed and sensitive connections must be established with the communities in which the Football 4 Peace delivery model and the coaching manual are employed. Sustained relationships with partners are also critical to the positive outcome of interventions. These principles are essential to the success of the Football 4 Peace ripple-effect model of cultural intervention and socio-cultural change and provides the wider framework for effective and positive collaborations between researchers and communities.

Young people benefit from the University of Brighton's work through Football4Peace and Rugby4Peace in (top) Colombia, (centre) The Gambia and (bottom) Israel.

International uptake for football in the promotion of peaceful co-existence   

The growth of Football 4 Peace has seen the model of sport or football for peace and peaceful co-existence adapting to specific communities. Football 4 Peace Gambia has succeeded in bringing together youth from different communities and ethnic groups, giving leadership roles to men and women from previously marginalised ethnic groups, thus challenging the assumed power of the Mandinka. In Colombia, meanwhile Football 4 Peace training is helping the Fundación Buen Punto to build stakeholder capacity for developing more socially just forms of inclusion, transforming the lives of some of those children who may otherwise become entangled in the gang culture that pervades.

Football 4 Peace has also engaged with humanitarian development in North Korea, bringing together people with conflict-based differences, training male and female coaches, and stimulating inter-cultural understanding across the Korean Peninsula. School-partnered Football 4 Peace Korea undertook new projects in the light of COVID-based restrictions including expanding the University of Brighton's coaching manual to include detailed game lesson plans and specimen values-related questions, and developing a values-related peace education video provided to schools as a teaching aid for remote learning.

The initiative has changed the policies of sporting organisations and was, for example, officially recognised by the Ministry of Culture and Sport in Israel in 2019.  It has shaped political discourse, too, contributing to debate on the security and defence agenda at NATO, in the context of cultural relations, conflict prevention and resolution.

Mentoring is a key feature of the Football 4 Peace model with the team at the University of Brighton building partnerships overseas, on home turf and in training others to take the concept further. Student coaches, local volunteers and community leaders all gain valuable leadership skills and ensure that the programme is resilient and sustainable. Football 4 Peace not only works with conflict-torn communities, but also addresses issues such as homophobia and racism in sport. Children, coaches, parents and local political leaders all benefit from being involved in integrated, friendly matches, while illustrating the fair-play values approach through football camps, festivals and ongoing inter-community activities. 

The Football 4 Peace programme is a successful example of transferring research into practice to effect change, facilitating the participation of over 8,000 children, 600 coaches and many community leaders while challenging and informing policies of sporting organisations in Israel, Jordan, Palestine, Ireland, South Africa and South Korea.  

To contact us and find out more, visit the Football 4 Peace website. 

See the Football 4 Peace introductory documentary on YouTube.

 Football 4 Peace is a registered trade mark of the University of Brighton.

Football4Peace coaches in The Gambia (above)

Projects in Mosquera and Choco, Colombia, bring football, rugby and surfing projects to cross-community groups in the promotion of co-existence through sport.