Football (soccer) is the most played and the most popular sport in the world. Youth issues and problems are receiving attention around the world. Violence, gang issues and lack of education are just a few of the various but common issue that touch the youth around the corners of the globe. Sport has often been touted as a tool for aggression management, and social and physical development. The sports world displays optimism regarding its actual contribution to the quality of life in society. It is an old cliché that sport is continually used as a panacea to heal all of society's ills, however the socializing impact of sport, and in particular, the sphere of influence of modern day sports, are debatable. Do we need to modify the games today's youth are playing in order to provide them with the skills they need for life today?

In response to the need for more information on the impact of sport and modified sports on developmental issues, the Youth Football Foundation / Stiftung Jugendfußball was founded in the year 2000. Football was taken as the focus for the work as it is the most popular sport to the majority of people, it can be played with few facilities and equipment and it is non-gender specific, so that both males and females can play together.

The Youth Football Foundation was founded by a group of German experts in football and sport science, with the aim to develop and foster new approaches for the good of football. The main objectives of the Foundation are: to support research projects on football, to highlight the results of this research and to work in the field of youth football, especially talent scouting. The founders and members of the Youth Football Foundation are former German World and European Champions (1990 and 1996), as well as researchers in sport medicine and sport psychology, who are supported by a council of experts in football. The patron of the Foundation is the German Chancellor.

The Youth Football Foundation is currently developing two approaches: fussballD21.de and streetfootballworld.

streetfootballworld is developing two fields of action within global grassroots football:

1. sharing good practice and networking on a global scale

The streetfootballworld Forum and Festival takes place every 4 years, for the first time in 2006 in Germany. It is a result of the permanent co-operation of the grassroots football community, and supports continuous development in the area of grassroots football in general.

2. developing concrete projects on a local scale

streetfootballworld develops concrete projects in the host countries of major football events. These approaches aim to highlight the global responsibility and local/regional sustainability of the these events by tapping into the respective local development.

In 2002 streetfootballworld started two pilot projects towards the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany, together with local authorities and a team of partner organisations. footballgeneration / Schulen zeigen Flagge 2006 and footballspaces / Spielorte 2006 are focusing on football and society (together with schools) and public football grounds (together with local initiatives and authorities).

www.streetfootballworld.org offers an interactive communication platform in the form of a common working place and a permanent meeting-point for the grassroots football community on a local and global scale.

streetfootballworld defines grassroots football as all kind of football in a local community (e.g. street football, street soccer, urban soccer or community football) focusing on social inclusion, violence prevention and non-formal education as specific goals. Almost all over the world football enthusiasts are running programs and projects for young people, based in the local community scheme and focused on the social development of the participants.

streetfootballworld, together with the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education (ICSSPE/CIEPSS) initiated a best practice survey in order to identify as many initiatives as possible that have the general features "grassroots football" and "social inclusion / social development". In order to establish a strong network of projects worldwide, streetfootballworld focused the survey on each continent and the results were encouraging: all over the world grassroots football is "used" as a tool for social inclusion, violence prevention, non-formal education - it is recognised and celebrated as a powerful moderator for the social development of young people. The following map shows just a few projects working on "the other dimension of the game".

best practice survey as of Dec. 1/2002

audela, Argentina homeless streetsoccer world cup, Austria gol de letra, Brazil soccer of future, Brazil reconciliation through streetfootball, Burundi somagic street soccer, Canada football for peace, Colombia liverpool youth sport link, England leeds football community link, England kensington youth integration, England salford football community link, England the hartley center, England nacro norwich football project, England football coaching for the homeless, England all stars – street football, Finland president´s cup, Georgia flats youth project, Ghana football president's cup, Georgia ballance2006, Germany streetfootball for tolerance, Germany bunt kickt gut, Germany street football children, Indonesia street football league, Israel mondiale antirazzisti, Italy mathare united, Kenya grassroots football federation, Nigeria fargerik fotball, Norway football for peace, Rwanda national street soccer league, Singapore play soccer non-profit, Ghana/USA

The identified projects are working with football to promote healthy lifestyle (Georgia), prevent HIV/AIDS (Liberia), include young women into sport (Ghana, Rwanda), foster reconciliation (Burundi, Colombia), tackle crime (England) and social exclusion (USA, Germany, Russia) - just a few examples of the other dimension of the game. The position of football in this and many other projects worldwide is programmatically defined as a moderator variable in the youth development: shooting a goal is just a step to the social development of young people through football.

streetfootballworld is developing a global platform for these grassroots football approaches. The project implements an efficient internet portal as basic communication and information tool for project managers and meeting point for the participating youth and interested public in general. As a milestone for the permanent exchange of young participants and experts, a periodically celebrated streetfootballworld - Forum and Festival on a global scale will be established, for the first time in 2006.

These elements of the project are being developed to provide better facilities for the exchange of information and experiences in the day-to-day work of project managers, but also to promote their work in an appropriate way: through presentation of news and upcoming events on the website and through "real" events in the world of grassroots football. Regional and continental kick-offs and a Festival in the year 2006 as well as meetings of grassroots football researchers preparing the Forum 2006 are meant as highlights in a permanent process of creative project work and grassroots football action. Network structures and the Internet portal are established as an unique source of know-how accessible to everybody and basic for the efficient trans-national co-operation.

Vision of streetfootballworld

streetfootballworld recognises and celebrates the role of grassroots football in society and supports the integral development of this sport, as complement to the associated football.

streetfootballworld is a facilitating and co-ordinating body for the world of grassroots football on a global scale, based on the principles of inclusiveness and diversity.

The upcoming FIFA World Cups, for the first time in Germany 2006, is thought to be the platform to integrate grassroots football - the other dimension of the game - as an important element, highlighting global responsibility and the need of a sustainable impact on the hosting nation/region as well as on the global (grassroots) football movement in general - a movement that is, based in the grassroots, modifying the football games today's youth are playing in order to provide them with the skills they need for life today.