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Winners of 2017 UEFA Foundation for Children Awards announced

Awards go to 20 organisations recommended by UEFA member associations supporting deprived children

On 24 May, the Board of Trustees of the UEFA Foundation for Children met at the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm under the stewardship of its chairman, José Manuel Durão Barroso.

The agenda for that meeting included a number of important items of business, such as the approval of new members of the Board of Trustees and the 2017 UEFA Foundation for Children Awards.

New members of the Board of Trustees:

The Board of Trustees is composed of between 5 and 15 natural persons or representatives of legal entities. They are elected by existing members of the Board of Trustees and serve renewable four-year terms of office. At the meeting in Stockholm, four new members were elected by the necessary two-thirds majority of the members of the Board of Trustees, as required by the Organisational Regulations of the UEFA Foundation for Children, joining the five existing members.

The four new members are:

Ms Fiona May, former long jumper and a member of the UEFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee;
Ms Esther Gascón Carbajosa, the new general secretary of the Royal Spanish Football Federation;
Ms Nathalie Iannetta, UEFA’s chief adviser on governmental and social matters;
Mr Elkhan Mammadov, the general secretary of the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan and a member of the UEFA Fair Play and Social Responsibility Committee.

2017 UEFA Foundation for Children Awards:

For the 2017 UEFA Foundation for Children Awards, a decision was taken to place Europe’s national associations at the heart of the decision-making process. The associations were asked to nominate projects, which had to satisfy the following eligibility criteria: recipients had to be based in the country of a UEFA member association; they had to respect and comply with the Ethics Code of the UEFA Foundation for Children; they had to be registered with the relevant national authorities; and they had to fulfil all necessary legal and financial obligations.

This initiative was a resounding success, with a total of 23 member associations nominating eligible projects. With three of those associations having already received financial support from the foundation in the past, the Board of Trustees decided to share the €1m prize money equally (€50,000) between the organisations nominated by the 20 remaining associations, which are listed in the table below:

Nominating association	Recipient organisation
German Football Association	Integration durch Sport und Bildung e.V.
Danish Football Association	The Mary Foundation
Football Association of Moldova	Concordia
Football Association of the Czech Republic	Sportovní
Football Association of Slovenia	Youth health and summer resort Debeli Rtic
Scottish Football Association	The Scottish Football Partnership Trust
Estonian Football Association	SPIN
Football Association of Finland	Icehearts of Finland
Irish Football Association	Cancer Fund for Children
Swiss Football Association	Just for Smiles
Cyprus Football Association	Monadika Xamogela (Unique Smile)
Croatian Football Federation	World Roma Organization
Football Federation of Armenia	Grant Life
Hellenic Football Federation	Mazi gia to Paidi
Hungarian Football Federation	Janos Farkas Foundation
Italian Football Federation	Crazy For Football
Portuguese Football Federation	CAIS – Associação de Solidariedade Social
Romanian Football Federation	Policy Center for Roma and Minorities
Russian Football Union	Football for Kids
Royal Belgian Football Association	Plan Belgique

2017 call for projects:

This year, applicants will be able to submit details of their projects between mid-August and mid‑September 2017, once the selection criteria have been determined.

The next meeting of the Board of Trustees will take place on 2 October 2017 in Nyon.

Bring stars in their eyes

The UEFA Foundation for Children is making a real difference by using football as a force for good in society.

During the second half of the 2016/17 UEFA Champions League season, the foundation made the dreams of several children come true.

In cooperation with the French association Rêves and Sternschnuppe/Etoile filante and Make a Wish in Switzerland – and with the invaluable support of volunteers from among UEFA’s staff – the following youngsters were given the unique opportunity to realise their dreams and leave behind their difficult everyday lives for a short while.

Patrizio’s dream: to attend an FC Barcelona match, visit their stadium and see his idol Neymar in action.
Patrizio watched FC Barcelona play Juventus during the quarter-final second leg match of this season’s UEFA Champions League, which ended in a goalless draw. However, thanks to their 3-0 first leg victory, Juventus went through to the semi-finals – to the despair of Patrizio.

Yves-Clément’s dream: to attend a Chelsea FC match, meet the team and his hero Eden Hazard.
Yves-Clément watched the English Premier League match between Chelsea and Swansea City AFC on 25 February. He was thrilled to see Chelsea come out 3-1 winners.

More children’s dreams came true during the UEFA Champions League final in Cardiff.

Scott saw Real Madrid CF doing the replicate of last year’s victory against Club Atlético de Madrid by beating Juventus in this year’s final. Kevin and Thomas were also be in the National Stadium of Wales watching the game.
The three youngsters have been invited by the associations Dreams & Wishes, Association pour la Vie and Orchidée. They attended the game with their families to share the joy of this special day.

A group of ten young adults from the French association Sport dans la ville in Lyon were also invited at the match. The young men and women were chosen via an internal tournament and selected on the basis of their good behaviour and regular participation in the association’s projects. They were the happy witnesses Madrid’s quest to lift the 2016/17 Champions League trophy with their very own eyes.

Another 20 children were invited through the association Streetfootballworld, a global charitable network that enables disadvantaged youngsters to participate in football matches, educational workshops and cultural programmes.

Foundation spotlight on parents in Cardiff

Parents will take a prominent part in the UEFA Women’s Champions League final celebrations on Thursday – which is also the UN Global Day of Parents – to mark their role in children participating in football.

The UEFA Women’s Champions League final in Cardiff will celebrate the family – thanks to the UEFA Foundation for Children.

Thursday’s big match at Cardiff City Stadium between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain coincides with the UN Global Day of Parents, and parents will play a prominent role at the game, in tribute to their crucial contribution in getting children to participate in football.

The UEFA foundation – true to its mission to bring smiles to children’s faces and promote the magic of football – has planned activities involving children and parents.

At the opening ceremony ahead of the match, 15 girls and their parents will raise a giant centre-circle banner. On the eve of the final, the girls and families also had the opportunity to meet the players, who serve as important role models in inspiring young girls to take up football.

In partnership with streetfootballworld, the foundation has arranged match tickets for over 800 children and parents connected to charitable organisations in Cardiff that form part of the streetfootballworld network.

With Thursday’s final also heralding the kick-off of UEFA’s Together #WePlayStrong campaign aimed at encouraging girls to play football, the children will receive a Together #WePlayStrong tifo banner to hold, as well as inflatable bambam sticks.

“On the occasion of UEFA’s flagship women’s club competition final, the foundation would like to pay tribute to every child’s most important supporters: their families,” said Pascal Torres, general secretary of the UEFA Foundation for Children.

“Mothers and fathers have an essential role to play in getting their children, and their daughters in particular, to participate in this beautiful game.”

A Family celebration in Cardiff

Fun for the whole family at the UEFA Women’s Champions League final

Thursday 1 June is not only the day of the UEFA Women’s Champions League final – it is also the UN Global Day of Parents. To mark this double celebration, the UEFA Foundation for Children will make it an extra special day for youngsters and their families watching the final between Olympique Lyonnais and Paris Saint-Germain at the Cardiff City Stadium.

A number of activities involving children and their parents have been planned for this prestigious event. The initiative will be clear for all to see at the opening ceremony, when 15 girls and their parents raise a giant centre circle. The girls will also have the opportunity to meet the players on the eve of the final.

The foundation has also arranged match tickets for over 800 children and parents connected to charitable organisations in Cardiff that form part of the streetfootballworld network. The children will be given a Together #WePlayStrong tifo banner to hold, as well as inflatable bam-bam sticks.

“On the occasion of UEFA’s flagship women’s club competition final, the foundation would like to pay tribute to every child’s most important supporters: their families” said Pascal Torres, general secretary of the UEFA Foundation for Children. “Mothers and fathers have an essential role to play in getting their children, and their daughters in particular, to participate in this beautiful game.”

The UEFA Foundation for Children was established in April 2015 to help preserve the magic of football and give hope to those children who need it most.

Field in a Box – Cañada Real

Location and general information

CONTEXT

The UEFA Foundation for Children exists to promote the fundamental rights of children all over the world. Health, education, access to sport and personal development are all areas in which children’s rights can be safeguarded.
By providing infrastructure such as football pitches, the Foundation aims to use football as a powerful tool for social cohesion.

PROJECT CONTENT

The Field in a Box project was launched in Cañada Real. Situated less than 15 minutes from the Spanish capital, Cañada Real is one of the largest shanty towns in Europe, housing a total of 30,000 people in deplorable conditions. Relations between the different communities that live there, especially between Roma and Moroccan immigrants, are often difficult.
Thanks to financial support from FedEx – the world’s largest logistics company and main sponsor of the UEFA Europa League – and coordination by the not-for-profit organisation streetfootballworld, the UEFA Foundation for Children donated a football pitch to the charity Red Deporte y Cooperación. The pitch was built using the Field in a Box system, in which all the components of a football pitch are supplied in two containers. The system provides a safe sports facility comprising an enclosed artificial football pitch, goals, floodlights and changing rooms.

OBJECTIVES

The project’s main objective is to enable young people in Cañada Real, where sports facilities are few and far between, to play sport. By promoting football in Cañada Real, the foundation hopes to curb the exclusion of marginalised communities and foster greater social harmony.

RESULTS

In the space of one year:

Participation of 400 children (90% boys and 10% girls) in football
Organisation of 500 matches
Pitch maintained by youth coaches from the local community

Field in a Box is funded as part of FedEx Cares, a wide-ranging campaign that aims to invest in more than 200 communities in Europe and beyond by 2020. By cooperating with the UEFA Foundation for Children alongside its sponsorship of professional football, FedEx hopes to support initiatives with a positive local impact.

PARTNERS

UEFA Europa League dream for local children

UEFA Foundation for Children and FedEx ready to offer an unforgettable experience to disadvantaged children in Stockholm

The UEFA Foundation for Children is delighted to once again team up with FedEx to offer children a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to act as player escorts at the UEFA Europa League final on Wednesday 24 May at Friends Arena in Stockholm.

FedEx, the UEFA Europa League’s main partner, has donated its entire allocation of player escort places to disadvantaged children, giving them the chance to walk onto the pitch with their heroes from Manchester United FC and AFC Ajax. In addition, FedEx is donating 100 match tickets to other children through local charities.

The UEFA Foundation for Children and FedEx selected the lucky children with the help of streetfootballworld, a global non-profit organisation that uses football to drive social change, a Stockholm-based organisation Djurgarden Fotboll and three local charity organisations: Barn till Ensamma Mammor, Trygga Barnen and Kista Sports Club.

“We’re delighted to offer this opportunity to kids, and to deliver other community football projects with FedEx, who, as the main partner of the UEFA Europa League, shares our belief in football as a powerful tool for social change. In donating its player escort opportunities for the second year in a row, FedEx is once again providing children who face difficult challenges in their daily lives with an experience that’s really out of the ordinary,” said Pascal Torres, general secretary of UEFA Foundation for Children. “We hope the incredible atmosphere at the UEFA Europa League final and the pride of being chosen to escort these professional players onto the pitch will excite and inspire the children to follow their dreams.”

“As main sponsor of the UEFA Europe League, it’s important to us at FedEx that we make best use of our involvement in football to create positive opportunities in the communities we operate in at a local level,” said Patrick Stienlet, vice-president of ground operations for FedEx in the Nordic region. “While sport can’t offer a solution to all of the difficult challenges these children face in their daily lives, we know being part of an event as spectacular as this provides an exciting and inspiring breakaway from the norm.”

“Thanks to organisations like FedEx and their support of the ‘football for good’ movement, we’re able to connect two worlds: the world of professional football, where the glamour of a tournament unfolds on a global stage, and football on a local level, where the beautiful game plays its part in delivering social change,” streetfootballworld’s Vladimir Borkovic said.

Recognising that football has a unique power to transform lives, FedEx and the UEFA Foundation for Children worked together last year to set up an artificial pitch in an underserved community near Madrid, and they will build a second pitch in Poland this summer. Donated pitches are maintained by local charities through the streetfootballworld network, providing a safe environment for young people to play and develop important life skills, such as respect and dialogue.

Goal in Life foundation

Representatives of the UEFA Foundation for Children travelled to Cyprus in April at the invitation of a new foundation founded by active footballers and veteran players whose aim is to use the power of football and its players to assist socially vulnerable groups.

The association, Goal in Life, is the first charity of its kind – a voluntary body comprised exclusively of footballers, established on the initiative of Cyprus and AEK Larnaca FC captain Constantinos Charalambides. He succeeded in rounding up 22 founding members – active footballers and veterans – representing teams from towns and cities across the Mediterranean island.

The legal basis for the foundation has been laid, a board has been set up, and the statutes are already in force. Support has been forthcoming from the Cyprus Football Association, the Cypriot government and businesses on the island.
The official launch ceremony is today (15 May) at the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, in presence of the president of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, and the minister of education and culture, Costas Kadis.

“Football is the biggest social phenomenon, not only in Cyprus but worldwide,” Constantinos Charalambides says. “Goal in Life uses the power of footballers to shape society on two important pillars: as a charity, collecting funds and resources and giving them to those who need them most, and through volunteering, in order to empower others to promote humanity, mutual assistance and unity, and move away from fanaticism and crime.”

Goal in Life has identified various ways of achieving its objectives. These include providing financial support to vulnerable groups, fundraising for specific causes and initiatives, and visiting schools and hospitals as a form of civic engagement.

Goal in Life membership is open to footballers aged 18 or over, from Cyprus or abroad, who are registered with the Cyprus Football Association, as well as to individuals, companies and organisations interested in providing financial support through annual subscriptions or donations.

Members are encouraged to lead by example, to show that all players – Cypriot or not – are united by a common goal, namely to help society. They are also asked to speak out against violence, drugs, crime and other social ills, and convey other equally important social messages.

“Since players are idols, through their actions they are able to penetrate the different layers of society and actually help people in need,” Goal in Life explains.
Goal in Life and the Cypriot education ministry have agreed to set up a two-year schools programme, to be launched in September. The association will cover the cost of teachers staying on after working hours to provide additional courses in sport and physical education. Another of the programme’s aims is to promote the essential values of sport among youngsters.

The UEFA Foundation for Children is proud of the players in Cyprus who have initiated this unique programme, using football and their prominence as a force for good in society. We welcome this initiative and hope that it will be echoed by other players all over Europe.

PluSport player escorts take centre stage in the Super League

On Sunday 30 April, 22 children and teenagers from Axpo PluSport football teams accompanied the players of Grasshopper Club Zürich and FC Lugano onto the pitch at Letzigrund stadium ahead of their Super League tie.

Many young football fans dream of lining up on the pitch alongside their favourite players. On 30 April, that dream came true for 22 disabled children and teenagers thanks to PluSport, the umbrella organisation for disabled sports in Switzerland. The lucky player escorts were selected from the Axpo PluSport teams of FC Zürisee Juniors, FC Turbi, FC Wiggenhof and Ponte Kickers Zofingen. The initiative was made possible with the support of Grasshopper Club Zürich.

“It was a fantastic experience for the children,” said Anita Fischer, the PluSport project manager. “And their coaches and parents were very hands-on in preparing the children’s big moment on the pitch.”

And what about the children, what did they think of it all? “It was super cool,” according to Naomi König (14), whose sister, Saskia (16), said: “I thought it was a unique experience, something really special.” Others, such as Tobias Ruf, would have clearly preferred to play themselves!

The UEFA Foundation for Children welcomes this initiative, which shows once again that football is open to all. Aside from the joy it spreads, football enables disabled children to stay active and it gives them strength to tackle the challenges they face in day-to-day life.

Young film directors seeking to capture the passion of the game

The top European footballers of tomorrow will soon be in action at Colovray stadium in Nyon in the finals of the fourth edition of the UEFA Youth League. While FC Barcelona, SL Benfica, Real Madrid CF and FC Salzburg are battling it out for the Lennart Johansson Trophy, the UEFA Foundation for Children will be giving six budding young film directors from the local Camp Cinema group extensive access to the finals and related events to help them develop and hone their film production skills.

Those 12 to 16-year-olds will produce a special documentary bringing a fresh young perspective to this competition. Their short film will have a dual focus, featuring both the Youth League finals and a local children’s tournament taking place in parallel at the same venue. Both events will be fuelled by the same passion for the game, and the emotion of the various sets of fans will give a special flavour to that film, which will be promoted by both the foundation and UEFA via their assorted communication platforms.

The UEFA Foundation for Children will also be present at the Youth Plaza, displaying videos, showcasing a photo exhibition and giving children the chance to take part in a big quiz with great prizes.

All ticketing revenue from the Youth League finals will be donated to the UEFA Foundation for Children, helping it to finance projects allowing very seriously ill children to fulfil their dreams by meeting their favourite players and attending big matches.

çATED pour tes dents: a programme to help children with autism improve their dental hygiene

The UEFA Foundation for Children supports applied research projects designed to improve communication and education for autistic children in Europe.

In 2015, the foundation’s board of trustees decided to award its entire annual solidarity fund of €1m to the International Foundation of Applied Disability Research (FIRAH). FIRAH works in close cooperation with a number of partners, particularly universities in various European countries and national and international associations for autistic children and their families.

The foundation’s financial support for FIRAH will last for four years but has already made it possible to develop a project entitled ‘çATED pour tes dents’ (çATED for your teeth). The independence of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), notably regarding their oral health, is a specific research domain and an important real-life issue for families and professionals.

The çATED app was developed by researchers, engineers, professionals and parents of autistic children. It enables the children to be more independent and more confident and to organise themselves so they can complete their daily tasks. A visual timetable provides a representation of the day that the children can fill in themselves with their parents, organising and adapting it according to their needs and how they do things. This customisation makes it easier for the child to take charge.

The app also makes it possible to break a complex task down into simpler sub-tasks, making it easier for children to learn how to brush their teeth, and helps them to integrate doing so into their daily routine after each meal.

The app also makes it easier to prepare for and carry out one-off tasks that could cause anxiety, such as going to the dentist.

The çATED pour tes dents project is led by the University of Nantes in cooperation with the disability organisations ADAPEI 44, Agir et Vivre l’autisme and Chrysalide de l’Être.

A series of videos providing more information about the project and how people can use the app in their daily lives is available on the çATED pour les dents YouTube channel.

Three new research projects were chosen in 2016 and are about to start. The projects are:

The development of an evidence-based practice evaluation tool to support technologies linked to ASD.
The development of a software program that involves training, cooperative social interaction and motor learning, with the objective of developing children’s social, interaction and cooperation skills.
e-GOLIAH, a project providing digital games that help children improve their joint attention and imitation skills, two abilities that are key for their first social interactions and communication. This project involves a more natural way of taking action, as it focuses on children under five and is used at home with the involvement of the children’s parents.

Hope through football

“We play football to become better people – not necessarily better footballers.” This is the main motto of the ‘Goal Sti Ftohia’ (Kick Out Poverty) project, which is operating in Greece in the midst of an unprecedented socio-economic crisis. This project brings together the poorest of the poor – people who are experiencing social exclusion at its most extreme. Homeless people, refugees and recovering drug addicts of all ages – men and women alike – get together at least once a week to play football. For these people, playing football is not about winning games; it is about winning back their lives. This is Greece’s national homeless football team.

A photographer has been following the members of that team as they train together and seek to overcome their personal challenges and difficulties. He attempts to capture the players’ transformation as they go from being social pariahs to community leaders. Through football, their self-belief is gradually restored and the rest of society starts to see them in a different light. They are no longer outcasts; they are now regarded as fighters – as role models.

A programme of visits to refugee camps (also supported by the UEFA Foundation for Children) elevates them yet further to the status of community leaders. The team visit refugee centres, kicking a ball around with child refugees, sending out a message of joy and hope. They have all lost their homes, albeit the Syrian refugees have lost their entire country.

The camera follows the team from their weekly training sessions at a football ground in central Athens to the Homeless World Cup in Glasgow in summer 2016. After capturing their triumphs and tribulations in Scotland, it then follows them on to various refugee camps around Greece, watching them share the joys of the beautiful game with child refugees and anyone else who wishes to join in.

This project highlights football’s tremendous power to transform lives – in this case, the lives of homeless people living in extreme poverty. Through their participation in the Greek homeless football team, they are empowered, not just becoming socially active and rebuilding their lives, but establishing themselves as community leaders, leading by example.
This project is run by the NGO Diogenes, which also publishes the Greek street paper ‘Shedia’.

Fostering inclusion through football

KICKFAIR seeks to bring children together, uniting refugees and non-refugees through their shared love of football. However, the KICKFAIR concept goes far beyond that. Playing the game is just an initial starting point, giving children the chance to share experiences, using football as a common language. By playing together regularly, children build trust, and that forms the basis for deeper relationships. KICKFAIR has developed various different modules, using elements of football to foster mutual understanding both on and off the pitch. Those modules combine regular games of football with workshops where participants answer questions such as “Where am I from?”, “Where do I feel at home?”, “What makes a home?”, “What do we have in common?”, “In what ways are we different?” and “How do we want to collectively shape our future?”

The overall objective is to foster inclusion by tearing down barriers between children that have built up as a result of inaccurate stories, incomplete information and unfounded fears. It is about dealing with diversity and seeing it as a benefit, while ensuring that everyone has equal opportunities to develop – both on a personal and on a professional level.

The main target group is schools, which are in need of complementary inclusive concepts that will help to ensure mutual understanding and equal opportunities for all children.

Kick For Hope – Karak Football Coaching Course

UEFA Foundation for Children extends its support to communities and schools in Jordan.

With the help of the Jordanian Ministry of Education, the Jordanian Football Association and streetfootballworld, the UEFA Foundation For Children and the Asian Football Development Project have provided training in non-violent communication and negotiation skills to 21 physical education teachers and football coaches, both men and women, in order help them to build positive relationships between students.

Early March, the one-week course involved teachers and coaches from 12 schools in the city of Karak, south of the capital, Amman. It provided them with the knowledge and skills necessary to run regular football activities for children and to use the sport as a platform for building self-esteem and encouraging social cohesion by facilitating interaction among children of different origins.

The course was led by streetfootballworld instructor Hiba Jaafil (former captain of the Lebanon women’s national team and current U17 and U19 coach) and former Jordanian national women’s internationals Maryana Haddad and Zina Al-Sadi still playing in the Jordan national team.

After the course, a tournament was held for 100 children from the 12 schools (50 boys and 50 girls, all aged 10 or 11). Through football, a language understood by all, children of different origins came together, cheered each other on, helped each other to win and built lasting friendships.

The programme will be extended to 24 other schools in the south of Jordan over the course of the year. In various joint activities and special events, children from the different schools will play alongside each other in mixed teams rather than against each other, to encourage mutual understanding and acceptance of cultural differences and break down stereotypes and other barriers.

The UEFA Foundation for Children supports the Swiss disability sport association

Every child has the right to play football

The Goal Plus project of the Swiss disability association, PluSport, was one of those selected for support by the UEFA Foundation for Children following its call for projects in summer 2016. Goal Plus uses football and the passion it creates to give disabled children the opportunity to get active, have fun and develop team spirit – all of which helps their integration. The Goal Plus project consists of two subprojects: Play Football and From Football to Rafroball – one for youngsters who can walk and the other for those who use wheelchairs.

With the support of the UEFA Foundation for Children, more children and groups can take part in the project, more teams can be set up, weekly training sessions and regular tournaments can be organised, rafroball can be developed for children who cannot play conventional football and rafroball camps organised, coaches can be trained and specialised support staff rewarded for the part they play.

Pascal Torres, secretary general of the UEFA Foundation for Children, says: “The foundation is proud to support the development of all forms of football, including rafroball and blind football, through which football can fulfil its role as a game that all children can enjoy, regardless of their differences and abilities, giving them an opportunity to interact and play with other children and facilitating their integration.”

Note to editors:

PluSport is the umbrella organisation of all disability sport in Switzerland. For more than 50 years, PluSport has been using football to promote disability sport among its 12,000 amateur members through 90 regional clubs, offering a variety of sporting disciplines and organising about 100 camps. PluSport is the co-founder of Swiss Paralympic and also promotes elite sport.

More children’s dreams come true with the help of the UEFA Foundation for Children

During the first half of the new season (between September and December 2016), the UEFA Foundation for Children helped make the dreams of seven seriously ill football fans come true.

In cooperation with the French association Rêves and the Foundation Sternschnuppe/Etoile filante active in Switzerland – and with the precious support of volunteers from the UEFA staff – these young people were given a unique opportunity to live their dreams and leave behind their problems for a short while.

Nicolas’s dream: to attend a match of FC Barcelona, visit the stadium and meet the players

Nicolas watched FC Barcelona beat Manchester City 4-0 at home on 19 October on matchday 3 of the UEFA Champions League.

Théo’s dream: to see a match of Paris Saint-Germain and to meet some players

Théo attended the Paris Saint-Germain v FC Basel UEFA Champions League group match at Parc des Princes on 19 October – Link (in French)

Tobias’ dream: to attend an FC Basel match and meet Marc Janko

Tobias watched FC Basel play Paris Saint-Germain at Sankt-Jakob Park on the matchday 4 of the UEFA Champions League on 2 November.

Andrea’ dream: to watch a Juventus match and meet the players

Andrea went to watch Juventus play Olympic Lyonnais on matchday 4 of the UEFA Champions League on 2 November – Link (in French)

Brian’s dream: to see a match of FC Barcelona and meet the players

Brian saw FC Barcelona win 4-0 against Borussia Mönchengladbach at Camp Nou on 6 December on matchday 6 of the UEFA Champions League group stage – Link (in French)

Back to 2016

2016 – A year full of great projects in support of children around the world

The UEFA Foundation for Children rose to many challenges in 2016, helping to organise football-related activities for disadvantaged children and at the same time supporting projects for children in need throughout the world. We have picked out a few images that illustrate what the foundation has done, how important sport is for children’s development and how it can create social changes for young people who seize the opportunity.

The UEFA Foundation for Children contributed to the legacy programme of UEFA Futsal EURO 2016 in Serbia through a photo exhibition on children’s lives at the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, shown to classes from underprivileged neighbourhoods in Belgrade. The exhibition was used as an educational tool to teach the pupils about the lives of the children in the camp and to show them how sport helps people to face and overcome all sorts of difficulties in life.

Kids from Belgrade at UEFA Futsal EURO 2016

The UEFA Foundation for Children and FedEx set up an open community football pitch in Cañada Real, a shanty town in Madrid and one of Spain’s most economically disadvantaged areas. The pitch was donated to Red Deporte y Cooperación, a non-profit organisation that uses football to drive social change.

Football community pitch in Cañada Real, Madrid

The UEFA Foundation for Children gave 22 children from difficult backgrounds the unique opportunity to be player escorts at UEFA Europa League semi-finals in Seville and Liverpool and at the final in Basel.

Player escorts at St. Jakob-Park on May 17, 2016 in Basel, Switzerland.

Putting smiles on children’s faces at UEFA EURO 2016 was the objective of an ambitious project through which the UEFA Foundation for Children provided 20,000 tickets to local children who would otherwise not have the opportunity to attend a match.

The 20 000 Smiles project ahead of Hungary v Portugal in Lyon

During UEFA EURO 2016, the UEFA Foundation for Children also supported streetworldfootball Festival 16, hosted by Sport dans la Ville in Lyon – a massive gathering of football communities from all around the world and a great demonstration of the power of football as a peacemaker and a driver of social change.

streetfootballworld festival 16 - anthem

The opening ceremony of the UEFA Super Cup 2016 in Trondheim was used to send a message of peace and solidarity to civilian victims of bombings around the world. At the same time, and for the first time in the history of European football, two boys in wheelchairs escorted the players onto the pitch.

UEFA Super Cup Final, August 9, 2016 in Trondheim, Norway.

An important milestone was reached in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan with the inauguration of a House of Sports, an umbrella facility for all sports inside the camp.

Looking ahead, 2017 is shaping up to be another ambitious and rewarding year for the UEFA Foundation for Children, with 12 new programmes designed to help children in precarious situations overcome their daily challenges and acquire new skills that empower them and give them hope.