No.48 September 2006 |
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On July 8th, one day before the grand finale
of the FIFA World Cup 2006 at Berlin’s historical “Olympiastadion”,
another landmark event was taking place a few kilometres east. In the
colourful and lively Kreuzberg district, the first ever Street Football
World Cup was at its concluding stage with an equally -though very different
in every aspect- important finale.
The two finalists both come from Africa, the continent which for the
first time will host the FIFA World Cup, in 2010. In front of 2500 enthusiastic
spectators, MYSA (Mathare Youth Sports Association) from Kenya, as well
as everyone present that day, had to wait until the penalty shoot out
to celebrate the victory over KickAIDS, the South African project team.
The end of the regular game found the two teams tied at 2:2.
The “streetfootballworld festival 06”
opened its gates in Berlin on July 2. Initially, 24 teams representing
24 projects in 5 continents were scheduled to take place at the adjacent
Street Football World Cup. Unfortunately two of the teams, projects Search
and Groom (Nigeria) and Play Soccer (Ghana) were not able to secure their
visas and did not attend the event. However, for the 22 teams present,
as well for a total of 35,000 spectators, there was plenty of action and
fun. Within 6 days, more than 100 matches took place in an innovative
street football stadium with a capacity of almost 2500, specially and
temporarily constructed for the occasion. The presence of the media was
also significant, with about 800 accredited journalists from all over
the world covering the event.
Though the festival 06 was an innovative and very successful idea in
itself, another pioneering move by streetfootballworld was to name the
trophy of the tournament after Andrés Escobar, the late Colombian
national footballer who paid for an on field mistake with his life,
in 1994. Escobar scored an own goal at the FIFA World Cup in the USA
and for that reason, was later murdered in Colombia. That incident was
also the ignition for the creation of the worldwide network by Jürgen
Griesbeck, the managing director of streetfootballworld. Along with
FIFA’s Deputy General Secretary, Jerome Champagne, he was the
one to award the Copa Andrés Escobar trophy to the champions.
“Every single one of these teams deserves the
award. Everyone has worked hard for it in their projects and MYSA are
able to take it home with them today”, were the words of Jürgen
Griesbeck, right before bestowing the trophy to the champions. On behalf
of FIFA, the Head of its Corporate Social Responsibility Department, Federico
Addiechi, proceeded with the symbolic gesture to award five representatives
from the streetfootballworld network with the FIFA Fair Play Trophy, on
behalf of all participants of the festival 06. The idea of Fair Play was
lively interpreted by the young participants, as they played their matches
without a referee and therefore had to define the rules before every match
– and to stick to them under all circumstances. Danny Jordan, Head
of the Local Organizing Committee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South
Africa, renewed the appointment as he vigorously stated to the audience
that “we will see each other in South Africa!” where, parallel
to the FIFA WC, the second streetfootballworld festival is scheduled to
take place. This milestone event is only one aspect of the recently established
strategic alliance between streetfootballworld and FIFA with a common
goal to contribute even more to the field of social development through
football.
At the end of the closing ceremony of the festival 06, every player
received a trademark ‘festival 06’ football, all of which
were fairly manufactured in Pakistan and sponsored by TransFair. Moreover,
Cornelia Reinauer, District Mayor of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, offered
22 Buddy-Bears, a symbol of the city, to the participating teams. This
gift was specially designed and produced for the teams. The festival
06, being a celebration in itself, finished in the best way: over 50
players from all participating projects and nations performed a special
version of the Murga, the traditional Argentinian street dance. The
dance, especially created for the occasion, featured elements from different
cultural backgrounds.
In less than four years from today, MYSA will get
the chance to defend their valuable title. Whether they lose or win, they
know the most important part is simply being there, a live example of
the hard work that takes place in social development through football
projects around the world.
Contact
Panos Manologlou & Vladimir Borkovic streetfootballworld Sybelstraße 58 10629 Berlin T +49. 30. 7800 6248 F +49. 30. 7800 6245 E borkovic@streetfootballworld.org ![]() http://www.icsspe.org/portal/index.php?w=1&z=5 |