Open Fun Football Schools - A Tool for Peace in the Balkans

In this paper I would like to introduce you to a sport project called Open Fun Football Schools, which is a humanitarian sports project I have initiated and implemented in Bosnia Herzegovina and FYR Macedonia over the past three years.

My background for working with football in this field of area is multiple: I am a Master of Social Geography and Public Relations. I am a former football player/football coach in Denmark. And during the war in Bosnia Herzegovina (1992-93) I was heading the UNHCR operation in the Central and North Eastern part of the country (Vitez/Zenica and Tuzla).In 1997-98 I was employed in a private consulting company called ENCORE (European Negotiation and Conflict REsolution). It was my task to develop their international affairs. But we didn't have the same approach to the conflicts we wanted to solve and therefore I terminated my contract and took this initiative. 

In ENCORE we were especially selling services in the field of mediation. That is an excellent technique in which you as mediator try to guide the communication between conflicting parties. But in the mediation process the starting point and the focus is always on the problems between the antagonistic parties rather than their mutual interest.  

In other words, I personally find that there is an greater need to facilitate tolerance projects in Bosnia Herzegovina that are founded on positive energy rather than rip up in the hatred, fear and national psychosis generated by the war. And in this context, what is better than to use the best toy in the world as a tool: the ball? 

What is better than to initiate that children and their trainers from antagonistic population groups can play together and have fun and by that re-establishing old but broken friendships? What is better than to use happy children as instrument and generators in the phase where war has to be transformed into peace? What is better than to use playsports as a tool, playsports that by nature provide a so-called "non-political and informal forum" that is essential in the process of promoting peaceful co-existence and building a democratic civic society? (In this forum, I suppose, I don't need to talk about all the good sport does to the physical and mental well being of people).

The potential of sports in South Eastern Europe

Since I couldn't get any of the NGOs I know to adopt the idea of organising Open Fun Football Schools in Bosnia, I had to found a little NGO called Cross Cultures Project Association.

I went to Bosnia Herzegovina in February 1998 and succeeded in convincing some old colleagues of mine at the UNHCR that it might be a good idea to make some football schools after a concept developed by the Danish Football Association. Afterwards I also succeeded in raising some additional funds from different companies in Denmark, and since then I have been working full time organising Open Fun Football Schools and playsports activities for children in South Eastern Europe. I must say that it has been a fantastic experience being part of this project that in my opinion goes well beyond football. And I must say that I have learned lots of things about what good sports can do in the context of South Eastern Europe - much more than I ever expected.To me the sports sector has a tremendous unexplored and under-utilised potential with regards to social cohesion and the rebuilding of a democratic civic society. This is so for several reasons. 

First, as stated above, public sports and games provide a so-called"non-political and informal forum" that is essential in the process of promoting peaceful co-existence and building a democratic civic society. 

Second, sports play a very important role in all post-communist societies.  

Third, there are hundreds of enthusiastic and committed trainers in the Balkans who would all like to practice their skills, but who are not able to do so due to the limited resources remaining in the football clubs. Trainers that through previous activities in the Open Fun Football Schools have proved that they are ready to cross cultural, physical and psychological barriers in order to be active sports people again. 

Fourth, sports appeal to the voluntary participation and the social commitment of trainers, leaders and players and consequently sports reach people with only few and limited resources.What is an Open Fun Football School?The Open Fun Football Schools are based on a concept originating from the Danish Football Association. Each Open Fun Football School lasts five days. It is organized according to our comprehensive sets of manuals, and it comprise approx. 200 boys and girls from 8-14 and minimum 15 leaders/trainers that all serve Open Fun Football School on a voluntary basis.It's basic idea is a "Fun Concept": What is important is the playful aspect, the joy derived from playing, rather than the results, the score, the advancing skill levels. The many exercises and small games are designed to make everyone feel successful again and again. During a whole week, the kids get to live football, concentrating and immersing themselves completely in the game and the fun. It is not about developing and harvesting talented players, but about giving kids a rich and rewarding experience with ball playing, so as to promote the game, recruit players for football and develop their talents. Thus, in our Open Fun Football School players are not divided according to skills, gender or ethnic or social background. Trained and un-trained, boys and girls, "black and white" are playing on the same teams during a whole week.As mentioned above the Open Fun Football Schools was transferred for the first time to war-torn Bosnia Herzegovina in 1998.  

It is built on the memory of broken communication lines and the immobilities of the war, so harmful to peace and the public's mental health. Using ball games and pure play, the schools aim to be a strategic instrument to move people, physically and psychologically, across the numerous, invisible front lines that still cut through the country. Thus, they aim to counteract the fear and claustrophobia of war and stimulate the process of minority return by re-establishing old but broken friendships and sport co-operation among the football clubs involving their trainers, leaders and the children.The objective of the Open Fun Football Schools is thus falling into two main areas of concern. We use our Open Fun Football Schools as an instrument promoting:

• tolerance, peaceful coexistence, cooperation between otherwise antagonistic population groups and social cohesion. 
• the game, our specific "fun-football-concept" and the basic principles of "sports for all"

From 1998 - 2000 we have thus completed 64 Open Fun Football Schools with a total of 12,870 boys and girls aged 8-14 and from all social and ethnic groups, organised by 1,062 leaders and trainers who have all volunteered our program.

Promoting the game and the basic principles of sports for all

Further we have organised 15 "Open Street Events" (duration 3-5 hours) in Bosnia Herzegovina and FYR Macedonia comprising approx. 4,000 children of all ages. 

In 2000 street sport activities of different kinds were also organised on a day-to-day basis in refugee camps in FYR Macedonia comprising approx. 500 children, and similar activities were implemented in Kosovo in autumn 1999 comprising approx. 6,000 children most of them on a daily basis. This activity was funded by the Danish Government (DANIDA) and the Council of Europe.1998-2000 12 multiethnic seminars (duration 3 days) were completed for a total of 1,107 leaders and trainers from Bosnia Herzegovina and FYR Macedonia, and in its worth noting that until a week ago it was the only training activity organised for the youth trainers in Bosnia Herzegovina and FYR Macedonia by the football organisations.Finally sports equipment is a very important element in our project. We use approximately 50 per cent of our total budget on sports equipment. I.e. we provide a football per player, markers, and cubes etc., to all the clubs participating our Open Fun Football Schools in the hope that we will encourage them to open their clubs for all children who would like to play football. 

During the past three years we have thus distributed more than 11,000 footballs to the football clubs in Bosnia Herzegovina and approx. 3,000 footballs to football clubs in FYR Macedonia! That is a substantial amount of balls, and I can tell that the president of the Bosnian Football Association estimate that there are approximately a total of 15,000 footballs in all the football clubs in the territory of Bosnia Herzegovina! No doubt what so ever that most of the youth football in Bosnia Herzegovina post war is founded on sports equipment provided by the Open Fun Football Schools, and so are the football for girls in both Bosnia Herzegovina and FYR Macedonia.  

I can also tell that UEFA made an assessment of the grassroots football in Bosnia Herzegovina in the autumn 1997. At that time only 18 youth teams were registered in the entire country. This year our Open Fun Football Schools involved leaders/trainers and children from 56 cities/municipalities and 84 football clubs! From a "single-city approach" to a "twin-city approach".From 1998-2000 the Danish Government, UNHCR and ECHO (our main contributors) have supported our programme with the intent of stimulating the process of minority return. Thus, the donor agencies wanted Open Fun Football Schools to give priority to cities that were open to minority return and to include the minorities, the internally displaced persons and returnees living there.From the very beginning we realised that our Open Fun Football Schools was an excellent instrument to open the doors of cities that were blocked after the war. Thus, in the summer 1999 we succeeded in organising a multiethnic trainer seminar in the Serb town of Pale for 135 persons including 50 Muslim trainers (it was the first multiethnic event in that town after the war).Likewise, we were successful in organising Open Fun Football Schools in a number of the most difficult spots in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, places such as Gorazde, Pale, Bijelina, Vitez, Brcko, Sarajevo. We organised an Open Street Event in the centre of the town of Srebenica for approx. 400 children, including some 60 Muslim children that lived in the Sarajevo area. (Among the Muslim children some 40 boys and girls were expelled from the town of Srebenica back in 1995 and 12 of them lost their fathers in the subsequent genocide.).In 2000 we decided to challenge our "single -city-approach" in Bosnia Herzegovina and introduce what we call a "twin-city approach". Our focus was no longer just to include minorities in our Open Fun Football Schools locally. We would also like to use the schools as a tool to connect cities, clubs, leaders, trainers and children from the antagonistic entities. Consequently all our Open Fun Football Schools in Bosnia Herzegovina this year were organised jointly across old front lines by a minimum of two neighbouring cities or clubs. 

Promoting tolerance and peaceful co-existence

Following these principles we managed to organise 19 Open Fun Football Schools that included 302 leaders/trainers, 4,078 children from 56 municipalities/cities and 84 football clubs. To our surprise, all our participants accepted our approach from the very beginning, except in the Muslim and Croat communities in the towns of Gonji Vakuf and Bugojno.From a "conflict transformation measure" to a "conflict prevention measure"In 2000 Open Fun Football Schools were tasked by UNHCR and FRESTA (the Peace and Stability Pact Office in the Danish Government) in order to introduce our Open Fun Football Schools in FYR Macedonia establishing mechanisms that may contribute to bridge understanding and tolerance across existing divides between otherwise antagonistic population groups.  

Thus from being a tool developed in the post-war context of Bosnia Herzegovina, when peace agreements had been signed and war were to be transformed into peace, the Open Fun Football Schools were now to become a conflict-prevention measure in FYR Macedonia, helping forestall the processes that generate violence, hatred, fear and the well-known "national war psychosis".From a "local approach" to a "regional approach"Our main activity, the Open Fun Football School,is of course locally focused by its nature. But our extensive training programme of school leaders and trainers had this year a more regional approach.Thus, all the 13 Open Fun Football Schools in FYR Macedonia were built from our experiences in Bosnia Herzegovina and with invaluable assistance and supervision from our officials, school leaders and trainers from Bosnia Herzegovina. All the school leaders from FYR Macedonia were introduced to our special Open Fun Football School concept at a very successful school leader seminar in Bosnia Herzegovina along with their Bosnian colleagues. The two trainer seminars organised in FYR Macedonia were either headed/guided or supervised by some of our experienced Bosnian Fun Footballers. Officials from Bosnia Herzegovina monitored all the Open Fun Football Schools in FYR Macedonia as well as our Street Event in the centre of Skopje.Thanks to the invaluable assistance from our colleagues in Bosnia Herzegovina we implemented 13 Open Fun Football Schools in FYR Macedonia with a total of 2,578 children and 248 trainers during the summer of 2000.

Funding is our main problem

Generally speaking, it has been very difficult for a small independent humanitarian organisation like ours to raise money for sports. First, sports are usually not recognised as a separate programme sector in the relief programmes financed by the international donor agencies. For example, the Stability Pact has got four pillars in the programme, one of them programmes for youth and culture including theatre, music, dance, etc., but no sports.Second, the big national sports organisations usually do not support sports outside their home country. The international sports organisations such as UEFA, FIFA, and International Olympic Committee only support sports through their member organisations (the national football organisations). So far we have only succeeded to achieve attention and support from UEFA who was one of our main contributors in 2000 (last season they channelled 175,000 DEM to our project through the Bosnian Football Association).If sports take part in relief programmes outside the national sports organisations, it is usually as small-scale programmes aimed at specific vulnerable groups, such as people with physical or mental handicaps, as a programme component in a kindergarten, refugee camp or as tool in order to disseminate an information programme of mine awareness etc. Our budgetary requirements are far beyond the money available for such "small-scale" projects not because of high cost efficiency per beneficiary, butbecause of the scale of our project! Grassroots sports are, however, in the process of being recognised by the international donor agencies as a programme sector. Thus, at the summit of the 5^th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Agreement it was emphasised that sports certainly have a role to play in Bosnia Herzegovina. They may help create social and healthy activities for the youth and bring people from the antagonistic population groups together, thus contributing to the normalisation of the everyday life. Likewise, the Nice Treaty has its Annex IV stating the specific characteristics of sport and its social functions in Europe.

Our future plans

Based on our favourable results in all areas we have been assigned, the Danish Government has encouraged us to write a strategic document on how we would like to see our project sustained in Bosnia Herzegovina and FYR Macedonia as well as expand our activities to other countries in the South Eastern Europe. The future aims for the years 2001-2003 are:

• To obtain a more firm and solid financing for the next three years
• To seek this financing mainly based on three pillars:
  • National and international football organisations
  • Danish funds (mainly governmental funds)
  • European Funds.

On this basis we hope that we will be able to organise:

• 185 Open Fun Football Schools comprising 37,000 children in Bosnia Herzegovina (50), in FYR Macedonia (45), in Montenegro incl. Serbia (45), in Serbia incl. Kosovo (30), in Krajina & Eastern Slavonia (15).
• 26 regional weekend seminars for 3,300 prospective leaders and trainers.
• Special training of 24 key persons from Bosnia Herzegovina (8), FYR Macedonia (8) and Montenegro/Serbia (8) who are all going to serve the project as instructors on our leaders and trainer seminars, school leaders and monitors. The Faculty of Sports and Physical Cultures in Bosnia Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia and Denmark will host the seminars.

For further details visit the homepage of Cross Cultures - Open Fun Football Schools.