Monrovia – A non-governmental international sports organization, Football For Peace (FFP), which intends to focus on community integration, reducing tensions between different groups and creating dialogue between nations to bring peace in all parts of the world will be officially launched in Liberia at the end of 2018.
Report by Christopher C. Walker, [email protected]
Football For Peace is a diplomatic sports movement that creates dialogue and unites people. It considers football diplomacy to have a unique and irreplaceable capacity to unite hearts and minds, going far beyond ethnic, religious or social differences.
The program which seeks to bring young people together and create understanding through football, was endorsed by President George Weah as part of the July 26 Independence Day celebration, said Youth and Sports Minister D. Zoegar Wilson at a press conference on Saturday, July 28.
According to Minister Wilson, the program will be officially launched in November with President Weah serving at the face of FFP in Africa.
“This organization is involved in fostering peace throughout the world, including Africa through football diplomacy.”
“Our President being an icon and the only African to win the ‘World Best Footballer of the Year,’ led FFP in selecting Monrovia as a ‘City for Peace.’ President Weah has fully embraced Football For Peace, that Monrovia will serve as one of the cities for peace in November of 2018,” the Youth and Sports Minister.
He noted that the Government of Liberia is happy for the initiative because it will create employment for youths.
For his part, the co-founder of Football For Peace, Kashif Siddiqi, said Monrovia has shown in the past during Liberia’s civil war that football unites people. According to him, this was key in selecting Monrovia as the first city in Africa as the city of peace.
He considers Liberia’s President, Mr. George Weah, as a perfect example of football diplomacy because of his role in bringing peace to Liberia through football.
The FFP co-founder said before the official launch of the program in Liberia they will run short program in education for kids in Liberia.
“The interesting thing about the program is, we work with local experts to identify cities, communities where misunderstanding causes division. We will select 60 young leaders, who will become FFP’s Youth Ambassadors and will run equality and diversity inclusion workshops and leadership training to give them the needed skills,” Siddiqi said. He noted that if a city program is launched and reaches three thousand kids, it becomes an official city of peace joining the other seven cities across the world.
According to the Kashif, they intend to run a two-year program in Monrovia before it can extend it program to other cities in Liberia.
“Football For Peace brings sports and politics together because it is where the change can be made.”
According to him, the 60 ambassadors will run football tournament in their respective communities to bring young people together who might not usually mix.
Cities for peace makes a real difference as their ambassadors’ reports are expected to reduce feelings of isolation and increased confidence.
Also speaking was Africa’s Ambassador of FFP, Lebogang Chaka, who said Liberia has played a major role in bringing peace to Africa because many great leaders including Nelson Mandala benefited from Liberia before helping South Africa gained independence.
She said FFP is not coming to Liberia to force a program on Liberians but to ask them what affects them and which program is best suited for Liberia. He noted that FFP wants to use such program to tackle some of major problems in the country between the different ethnic groups.
“Our contribution to peace is to influence diplomatic, social and community relations by creating a neutral environment through our Educational Sports Peace Process. For action, we work with our coalition partners who respect the conditions of neutrality and independence. These include member states, governing bodies and the football community, to help bring about peace and act as impartial negotiators in areas where dialogue has broken down.”
“FFP can have a great contribution to Liberia and the Africa continent. We believe sports, especially football is a powerful tool to make positive changes across communities in Africa.”
“FFP is a driver in football diplomacy that creates positive changes across Africa and around the world, and we believe that our practices and delivery could give a great contribution to the continent,” Chaka said
The match will bring together several high profile heads of state, diplomats, community leaders and footballers, to demonstrate an action of peace through football.
As parts of the program, a football match will be hosted in Liberia where former football stars such as Ronaldinho Gaucho formerly of Barcelona and Brazil and current footballers Ashley Young of Manchester United and Denny Welback of Arsenal and high profile personalities including Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan and the Prince of Monaco will be in Monrovia for the launch. Football for Peace was established in 2006 by FIFA and Chilean legend Elias Figueroa and Co-founded internationally in 2013 by British South Asian international footballer Kashif Siddiqi. FFP has been active for over a decade, building a unique platform of neutrality and dialogue.