Great news for AWOF! We just won the Panathlon Wallonie-Bruxelles “Fair Play AWARD”! It’s a big honor for us to receive this prize among the other very valuable nominates. More and more attention and recognition is given to the social power of sport and this gives us a lot of strength and motivation to further diffuse the A World of Football message! Just look how happy we are…
AWOF is back in Brussels, Belgium… Those 6 months of meeting social actors of football throughout the world have been incredibly intense, instructive and passionating !
We are now more than ever convinced that sport is an essential tool to address social issues and that it gathers people from all over the globe. Therefore, we sincerely hope that in the future those initiatives will be able to develop more in their own community and elsewhere ! Once again, we would like to congratulate all the key actors invested in this social side of football !
Thank you all for your support and daily following. AWOF is not over ! We will keep you updated very soon with our future objectives for a better football !
That’s it, the time has come for A World of Football to release the last documentary of the series’ world tour. To do so, we had the chance to come back in Europe right in time to attend the UEFA EURO 2012 organized by Poland and Ukraine. It was the ideal environment to look at the two faces of football: the worldwide dominating media and professional football and its social counterpart. Indeed, during a competition such as the EURO you have got everything: stars, media, fans, passion, social aspects, etc. After nearly 5 months of travelling and visiting social initiatives around the globe, the EURO was the chance to address some questions such as: what is the place of football in our society? Is it a leisure activity, a business, a social vector… or maybe, all of these at the same time?
To answer some of our questions regarding the role of football in nowadays society, we decided to pay a little visit to Streetfootballworld (we encourage you to visit their website at the following address: http://www.streetfootballworld.org/). Basically, this renowned institution has built an enormous network of organizations which all use football to reach certain social goals, depending on the local issue they have to tackle in their own community. However, as pointed out by Christophe Mailliet (Head of Network Operations) such an approach is not always common in people minds. Indeed when people hear and speak about football, it is mainly related to the professional side of the sport. But too often this side of football is associated with negative aspects such as corruption, hooliganism and violence, transfers of players for incredible amounts, famous clubs weighed down with enormous debt, etc.
Yet, the professional football is not only made of negative aspects. For instance, big tournaments such as the EURO or the World Cup represent also major social events. People coming from many different places gather around football, making it the perfect occasion to meet each others. Foremost, these competitions are all about pleasure, emotions, festivity and discovering new cultures. This is the feeling we had during our respective stays in Ukraine and Poland!
Throughout our world tour of football, we have observed that more and more people are starting to think differently about football. The social actors we met have proven that if football is the number one sport on earth, it is first of all for social reasons. Everyone can play football. There are barely any restrictions! Football has the unique power to gather people despite religion, colors, language and even war. Witnessing this on the ground has been quite an experience and a privilege. The four of us are now, more than ever, convinced that football -and sport in general- if used adequately can change society, mentalities and people lives.
The various social initiatives we have had the chance to come across are all doing a crucial and vital job with significant achievements. Especially when you realize how scare are their resources (on a financial, human and equipment point of view). Having these various elements in mind, it is now time to urge the professional clubs and the federations to act. They have the resources and the power to support and develop this social side of football. As stressed Christophe Mailliet in the conclusion of our last documentary: “The day when the clubs and the federations will understand the power they have in their hands with football and start to look at the social side of this sport, we will be able to diffuse incredibly powerful messages and much more…”
To illustrate all this and see how popular and powerful football can be, go watch our last documentary in the roadbook section of this website!
We finally got to meet Street Football World in Berlin ! It was the opportunity to shoot the last interview of our world tour and to discuss about our respective commitment to social football !
Make sure to check their website as they became the number one reference in development through football (www.streetfootballworld.org).
Great catching up with Marc Wilmots in Kiev (EURO host city) ! We took the time to exchange about Belgian football and AWOF’s latest experiences.
Before heading back to Europe, Brazil was a very unique stop for A World of Football ! Football is everywhere. From the first day till the last, we could feel this passion for the beautiful game. Football has become a part of the country’s cultural heritage. All over the world people know legendary players such as Pele or Ronaldo, many have seen pictures of football fields on Copacabana beach…
But there is another side of Brazil in the shadow of this common knowledge. Indeed, while the economical growth of the country is booming, the poverty rate among some part of the population remains critical. In the favelas, neighborhoods located on the side of big cities, this reality is especially marked. Those communities do not perceive the benefits from the country’s boom. On the contrary, they mostly suffer this lack of redistribution while the cost of life rose significantly the last years. In this context, the criminality remains a valuable escape for many youngsters in the favelas. This is why, many of them get invested into the drug traffic at a very young age.
This traffic is controlled by various gangs who rule over the different neighborhoods. They are organized as firms and employ thousands of people at different levels. In those organization, kids from 12 years old might find jobs and remuneration. They are called “drug soldiers”. But from the moment they get involved, their whole life changes and is now conditioned by the traffic. Their liberty is limited as they are purchased by the police, enemies of other gangs and under the full control of their drug lord. Besides, their life is under very high and permanent threat… Indeed, about 80% of youngsters involved in the traffic die before they reach 21 years old. This is a choking detail. Unfortunately, they are very few incentives to convince those boys to leave this lifestyle and to help them to reintegrate society.
The IBISS foundation and the initiative Favela Street decided to tackle this reality. IBISS foundation has long been helping those boys to leave the traffic through negociations with the drug lords and the creation of reinsertion programs. Favela Street is on of those programs using football as a social tool. Indeed, it teaches ex-drug soldiers how to become football educators and how to organize street football tournaments inside the favelas. Those are essential skills in order to make them more confident about their own abilities to do good things. It is also a very useful way for them to reintegrate the community in a peaceful manner as football is a passion shared by everyone over there. On the other hand, with this program, Favela Street also tackles another crucial aspect to cut down the traffic: it occupies the kids during their free time. Therefore, while many spend their days in the streets, the kids from Favela Street’s program are busy playing football and are getting informed with the dangers and temptations of the street. Because nowadays, those ex drug soldiers that became football educators are seen as model for the kids, in a positive way.
Today, Favela Street remains a pilot project located in one favela of Rio de Janeiro. Its founder, Philip Veldhuis, hopes that in the future they will be able to expand the impact in other favelas from other gangs. There is indeed still a lot to be done to assure serenity and good future to the youth of the favelas. But just as Philip, we really think that in this context football as an essential role to play, especially in Brazil. People eat, people breath and people talk all about football, so to reach certain social goals there might be no better method than using the beautiful game…
Get more information about the goals and challenges of Favela Street by watching our documentary in the roadbook section !
More information about the initiative: www.ibiss.info www.youngharmony.nl/favelastreet
Before heading to the UEFA EURO, AWOF is still working on its last documentary outside Europe: Brazil ! In a few days, you will know more about it, but in the meantime discover our Brazilian trailer !
We are now shooting in Vila Cruzeiro, one of the many favela of Rio de Janeiro.
Stay tuned, there is more coming soon…
