Lay’s, the UEFA Foundation for Children and the Asian Football Development Project (AFDP) have joined together to install a new artificial football pitch in the Za’atari refugee camp in northern Jordan.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to see how something as simple as a football pitch can bring so much joy and happiness. Football has the ability to inspire, unite and also teach children important life skills and values, such as teamwork and respect,” said the UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, on the occasion of the official inauguration that took place on 12th September 2017.

As part of the UEFA Youth League finals, the UEFA Foundation for Children worked with Camp Cinéma, a local organisation that gives young people the opportunity to discover the world of film production, to produce a short film showing the tournament as seen through the eyes of the young.

While Europe’s most talented young players were competing to lift the Lennart Johansson Trophy, the teenagers from Camp Cinéma had carte blanche to capture all the emotion and passion of the event. They started with the children participating in a parallel mini-tournament and then met and interviewed some of the two finalists’ players from Salzburg and Benfica.

Our young directors, who are all aged between 12 and 16, spent weeks preparing to produce this special innovative documentary about the UEFA Youth League – a football competition that marks an important point in a player’s transition from elite youth football to the professional game.
The concentrated nature of this two-day event was both a fantastic opportunity and a real challenge for our young film-makers, who were seeking to apply their knowledge of short fiction films to a documentary project while operating in a professional environment. They also had the opportunity to experience the world of professional sports journalism, conducting interviews with some of the young stars of the future.

The Camp Cinéma film crew received advice and support from the professional production team working at the tournament, as well as being given match footage from the official broadcast production for inclusion in their edit. They also had the chance to visit the OB van – the nerve centre of live broadcast operations.

We are proud to present the film produced by the children from Camp Cinéma, which shows the UEFA Youth League finals as seen through their eyes.

We would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to all our young directors and producers:
• Alicia Perrone
• Delia Simon
• Vivia Theraulaz
• Marius Müller
• Liam Macia Feferman