News

Thanks to the UEFA Foundation for Children and the Football Association of the Czech Republic (FAČR), 100 young people in precarious situations in the Prague region attended the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final between Sweden and Portugal at the Eden Stadium in the Czech capital.

Two local groups received 50 tickets each for the showpiece occasion. One group was the Children’s Home association, which helps children and adolescents who are marginalised or in difficult social situations, as well as orphans, homeless youngsters and children from the Roma minority.

“The Under-21 final is a very important event,” said Martin Lněnička from the Children’s Home, “and we were very surprised, happy and excited to be part of it. We all realised that it was a huge honour for us to share in football’s fever. We really appreciated this opportunity.”

“Children in our house live almost the same lives as other youngsters – school, hobbies, fun, shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc. They live in family groups and they are supervised by teachers, and they spend their time like other young persons.”

What can football bring into these youngsters’ lives? “In general, sport helps a lot in difficult life situations,” Martin Lněnička explained. “Football is fun for everyone, boys and girls, and most of them have tried it. That’s the reason why they can understand the game. Personally, they love Ronaldo and Messi, and they know most of the famous players from the UEFA Champions League. They also have their favourite players in our national team, and now in the Under-21 category as well.”

For these young people, the invitation to a major European competition final was a fantastic experience. Through the realisation of this dream, the Foundation hopes that the experience will give the youngsters a glimmer of hope and a boost in their life.

The Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan is staging a football tournament from 11-15 June to mark the forthcoming World Refugee Day on 20 June. The tournament is being organised by the UEFA Foundation for Children, the Asian Football Development Project (AFDP) and the UNHCR.

The tournament will feature Under-15 male and female teams from the 12 districts of the camp, and the finals will take place on 15 June before the start of Ramadan. On 20 June, the winning male team will take part in a match together with the Jordanian Under-15 male team. The match will take place at Al Sareeh.

Youngsters are being given the opportunity to engage in fun and competitive recreational activities, and the tournament aims to promote interaction and dialogue between young Syrians and Jordanians through football. In addition, tournaments such as this promote, among others, the role of sport and recreational activities in responding to young people’s psychosocial needs, and help reinforce the relationship between the UEFA Foundation and the AFDP with respect to activities at the Za’atari camp.

The event and its message fit perfectly with the message being promoted by the UNHCR this year – Standing Together.

Male and female teams at the Za’atari camp tournament will each comprise ten players. Male teams will be fielding players aged between 13 and 15, and female teams will consist of players between the ages of 10 and 15. All teams registered for the tournament will choose a team name, which will formalise their status within the UEFA Foundation for Children/AFDP Football League at the Za’atari camp.

Every qualifying game in the male tournament will be 15 minutes in length, while the quarter-finals and semi-finals will be played over 20 minutes. All of the female tournament matches will last for 15 minutes. The tournament finals on 15 June (both male and female) will played over 20 minutes.

The event on 20 June will take place at night due to Ramadan. The match will be of 2 x 15 minutes’ duration, and each of the two teams will feature a mixture of both Syrian and Jordanian youngsters.

The UEFA Foundation for Children was pleased to invite eight children and four accompanying adults from the Air pur & soleil organisation to the great annual celebration of football that is the UEFA Champions League final. Air pur & soleil (Fresh Air & Sun) is a children’s organisation based in Haute-Savoie that provides breaks for children who are going through a very difficult time in their lives. They are generally experiencing family breakdown or have dropped out of school or other institutions. The organisation enables them to get away from their usual surroundings for a while by giving them a calming environment and a break between a problematic past and perhaps a fresh start.

Two other young people, who are supported by the Swiss-based Étoile filante (Shooting Star) foundation, could also have their dream come true as they too attend the UEFA Champions League final. The foundation’s primary aim is to bring joy and fun to children and young people up to the age of 18 who are seriously ill, injured or disabled.

Children in Poland got to experience the inspirational power of football at the UEFA Europa League final in Warsaw as part of the UEFA Foundation for Children’s first new project. “Some of them had been so excited they couldn’t sleep two or three nights before the game,” said Janusz Bukowski, who heads the local association that was responsible for accompanying the children at the match.

A total of 200 tickets were made available in support of vulnerable children living in Poland. The Polish Football Federation (PZPN) and the city of Warsaw selected 14 associations with a recognised role in this field, and through them sent 157 children and 43 accompanying adults to the final on 27 May.

“Being chosen to attend the final meant a lot for these children. It was like winning the lottery for them,” Bukowski said. “Many of these children were so excited they couldn’t sleep two or three nights before the game – they couldn’t believe they’d really been invited to such great event. It was a fantastic idea and I would like to say ‘Merci Michel’. Sport is a fantastic opportunity to integrate people. These vulnerable children now feel that they are important, that somebody cares about them. In their everyday lives, they get into trouble at school and at home because they can’t control their emotions. That’s why they’re often rejected by others. And here they weren’t rejected, quite the opposite: they were INVITED. It’s a big difference in comparison with their day-to-day lives. Football really can make a difference, and this is just one example. Even before the game I spoke to their teachers, who said that just being invited had helped a lot; the children had suddenly started to behave! This has changed them a lot.”

Explaining how the children were selected, Bukowski revealed: “It was amazing for me. To be frank, we picked the biggest troublemakers. The more rejected they were by the community, the more we wanted them. We also had children in wheelchairs. For some of them it really was a dream come true. UEFA and the Polish FA not only gave them tickets, they gave them the feeling that somebody cares. UEFA made them feel as great as the stadium they were in, as great as the event they were watching. This is priceless. Most of them love football, Robert Lewandowski is their idol and who knows – maybe one day they will have the opportunity to watch him from the stands!”