EDDIE IZZARD

NEWS REPORT
For hundreds of thousands of refugees starting a new life in Europe, football is the only language they share with their new neighbours
Football to the rescue
Tom Walker looks at how football is helping European nations deal
with one of the largest global humanitarian crises in history
As hundreds of thousands of
refugees continue to arrive
in Europe from war torn
countries, football – the
most global of all sports – is
doing its part in making the new arrivals
feel welcome and safe. By offering free
tickets to topflight games, donating
match receipts to charity and setting up
new teams and leagues for the displaced,
clubs and organisations are using the
beautiful game and its universal language
to break down barriers and help integrate
the new arrivals.
TICKETS PLEASE
One of Europe’s leading clubs, German
champion FC Bayern München, opened
its doors by providing a training camp
for young refugees. The camp will offer
meals, football sessions and German
language classes to help deal with the
emotional traumas the children have
suffered during their long journeys
to safety. In addition, Bayern has also
pledged to donate €1m towards projects
to help those involved in the crisis.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, chair of Bayern,
said: “We see it as our social responsibility
to help the refugees, needy children,
women and men; to help them and to
accompany them in Germany.”
Other German clubs to set up initiatives
to welcome refugees include Borussia
Dortmund – which invited 220 refugees to
watch their game against Norwegian side
Football is helping kids deal with emotional
traumas suffered during their journeys
TEAMS ARE BEING SET UP
AND GAMES ARRANGED
AGAINST LOCAL TEAMS
TO FORM FRIENDSHIPS
Odd in the Europa League in August – and
Mainz 05, which gave out 200 free tickets
to their home match against Hannover.
Elsewhere, clubs taking part in this
season’s Champions League and Europa
League pledged to donate €1 from every
ticket they sell to refugee charities – raising
more than €2.8m (£2m) in the process.
The campaign, called 90 Minutes for
Hope, is based on an initial idea from
Portuguese side Porto and backed by the
European Club Association (ECA), the
independent body which represents elite
clubs at European level.
In a statement, the ECA said: “We cannot
close our eyes to the dramatic scenes
currently taking place throughout Europe.
We, the European clubs, understand that
our work goes well beyond what we achieve
on the pitch and are naturally committed to
engaging in social causes.”
Other clubs to have set up their own
funding initiatives to help refugees include
Spain’s Real Madrid and France’s Paris
St. Germain – both of which have made
sizeable donations to help charities working
with refugee children. Meanwhile, Italian
Serie A club AS Roma, pledged €575,000
(£411,000, US$620,000) to its Football
Cares campaign.
NEW SET OF CLUBS
All across Europe, clubs are being launched
for refugees and games arranged against
local teams to promote integration and to
form friendships. One of these is Wacker
Refugee Club, a team set up exclusively
for refugees by German club FC Wacker
Munchen. The aim is to give young boys
aged between 12 and 18 the opportunity to
kick-start a normal life.
Europe isn’t alone with its footballrelated
aid missions either. Football
Federation Australia (FFA) launched its
own Football Cares initiative, designed to
help integrate 12,000 Syrian refugees into
communities in the country. “Football is
the only sport which is universally loved
and understood by people everywhere,”
FFA chief executive David Gallop said. ●
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