Football for peace in Lebanon

These children playing football are contributing to peace and reconciliation in Lebanon. The CCPA organisation and the Rockwool Foundation are working together on a project in this sharply divided country.

Christians and Moslems can play football together, despite the fact they have fought a bloody civil war against each other. The CCPA organisation has achieved success in bringing the children of Lebanon together across the cultural divide. The recipe is simple: football is used as an universal language, spoken by children and adults alike. The aim of the pilot project in Lebanon is to establish football clubs spread across the entire nation. Normally, only the elite with money or the right personal contacts get the opportunity to  participate in organised sports in Lebanon, but this new project builds upon principles of fairness, fun and openness. The opportunity to get involved is open to anyone and everyone. This means that the project represents a radical break with the established patterns of sports in Lebanon. The Rockwool Foundation was encouraged to support the pilot project in light of the success of previous similar CCPA projects in the Balkans and the Caucasus, where the organisation had also managed to persuade one-time enemies to communicate with one another through shared sporting activities.

Beirut: There is still a long way to go in involving girls in the public arena of sport on an equal footing with boys. This is one of the traditional role stereotypes that is being tackled at the football school in Beirut. 

A catalyst to bridging the divide

Football involves feelings, and team sports can function as a catalyst in bringing people together. Football is about fun, fellowship and team spirit. It brings instant happiness to the lives of children. It also brings parents, siblings and football trainers together in an effort to create a framework for the children to enjoy themselves. All this goes on across ethnic, religious and political divides. The adults meet and communicate in a neutral environment where the focus is on the games and the opportunities for the children. Even though meaningful dialogue may have broken down in everyday society, the warring parties can find common ground in the context of sport. A sense of fellowship created around the game of football, and within the framework it establishes, helps to build a platform for the meeting of many different interests. The potential for building bridges is clear when we see children transform a road or a backyard into a lively football pitch with a wealth of activities on offer. The participants in and members of CCPA’s football clubs, seminars and other activities are winning daily victories. Participants in a seminar are often amazed to discover just how much they are in agreement with people “on the other side”. A Christian local councillor, Melanie Chahine of Araya, said that she had not even sat close to a Moslem since the first civil war began in 1975 – not to speak of working closely with one on values and dreams!

Terror and civil war

In a country such as Lebanon, which has witnessed terror, civil war and occupation, it is far from obvious that sports can help to break down barriers and restore social cohesion. Feelings still run very high, even though the civil war ended in 1990. In order to promote an environment marked by tolerance, cooperation and good neighbourliness, CCPA has developed an approach that makes it possible to involve all sides without regard to their ethnic, religious or social allegiances. The joint activities become a source of successful social development centred around the football clubs.

A Muslim goes to church

In one football club, a Shia Muslim trainer from a Hizbollah-controlled area recalls how football took him into a Christian village for the first time since the war – and on that previous occasion his mission had been to destroy the place! As it was Sunday, the church bell began ringing to call people to the service. He asked if he might come and see. The visit to the church turned out to be an amazing experience for him, filled with peace and dignity. Examples like this emphasise the real value of the project, which is actually less about football and more about bringing out the humanity in people in an area of conflict. The project brings together people from different sections of the population in an activity which is positive, forward-looking and innovative, and where, in their meetings with one another, they are amazed to find that they can agree and work together despite their earlier enmity. Football is simply the catalyst for all this.

Mixed population groups

The Rockwool Foundation has insisted that the projet should focus on areas with mixed population groups: where the different national groups live in close proximity to one another, and where there are great differences between the groups. The approach is to recruit trainers and children for the clubs from the local population, making every effort to reflect the local demographic mix as closely as possible. The Rockwool Foundation has also insisted that the project should aim for 20% of the participants to be women. This goal relates to the weekly sports activities, to the football festivals, and to the training of volunteer trainers. The aim is for the pilot project to set up football clubs, each with its own local agreements and rules. The organisers of the individual clubs attend courses that will equip them to carry on the work when the Rockwool Foundation withdraws. The idea is to ensure that the local communities feel that the clubs belong to them. 

Beirut: Equipment provided through the project provides the material basis for the spread of sport for all in Lebanon.

Challenging ingrained patterns of thinking

The grass-roots approach that characterizes the project is difficult to apply in a very hierarchical and authoritarian society such as that of Lebanon. Some of the participants in the club-creation courses are sceptical at first. This is mainly because they are impatient and want to see quick results from their efforts. It is necessary for them to get used to the idea that a football club does not necessarily consist of an enclosed football pitch, with a club house and all kinds of facilities. This is a challenge that is constantly needs to be tackled. First, suitable premises must be found, and activities have to be arranged. A local parent group must be set up to take responsibility for the club. Then club rules have to be drawn up and members recruited; and so step by step the dream can be realised in a way that will change people’s daily lives in a direction that they have chosen for themselves.  

A foundation in the grass roots

The Lebanese Ministry for Youth and Sport issued a decree in March 2007 permitting the establishment of “Popular Clubs”. This decree created the opportunity for the liberalisation of sports in Lebanon. By registering the “Popular Clubs” established through the proejct, the Rockwool Foundation support the realisation for a “sport for all” ideal in Lebanon. At the same time, the official registration of the clubs is a part of a coherent strategy which supports the establishment of clubs, feelings of community, and the hope of achieving access to sport for all at a national level.