The sun setting behind the football pitch at Birżebbuġa FC casts tall moving shadows as 14 men run across the synthetic turf during their twice-weekly friendly.
They hail from different African countries and for some of them the beautiful game is everything – they even dream of playing professionally one day.
For Nurudgen Mohammed, a refugee from Ghana, it is a way of “keeping strong” and getting a good night’s sleep. “When I’m playing I forget everything,” he confides.
Mr Mohammed’s team participates in inclusion sessions taking place in football clubs around the island. It is an initiative of ‘All in – All for Football’, a project on refugee inclusion launched by the Malta Football Association earlier this year which has so far involved 400 adult and 60 child participants.
The project carries on from last year’s ‘Include Me and I Will Understand’, through which the MFA sought to promote the integration of refugees, locals and disadvantaged groups in society by involving them in football-related sessions as well as offering them courses in first aid, nutrition, literacy and culture.
The sessions are also an opportunity for the men to mingle with people outside of work. On a couple of weekends when they weren’t able to play, Maria Ellul, the coordinator of the team, invited them to the beach with some of her friends.
“I don’t swim but Maria helped me. I was very happy because I got to speak to others,” said Mr Mohammed. “I learned a lot about Malta and saw many beautiful places.”
To begin with, he was wary. “I thought maybe… you know with this racism… but they didn’t apply these kinds of things. I was happy because it seemed like we were all equal.”
From backpack to volunteering
Ms Ellul became a volunteer with the MFA after returning from her travels in South America. Regularly heading to Jobsplus in search of a job, she witnessed a lot of racism and decided to do something about it.
She has been running these sessions for a month now, along with coach Carmel Farrugia.
A challenge that the project has faced is mobility of its participants, says Peter Busuttil, the campaign project coordinator. Due to financial pressure and work commitments, many found it difficult to make their way to football clubs around the island. So this year the project has been given support from Transport Malta to improve accessibility.
I like the Maltese and the country a lot… I would like it if we could do more of this
Another development is the introduction of football games at the Initial Reception Centre (IRC) in Marsa, where irregular migrants are detained immediately upon their arrival to Malta.
“Two, three days ago they [the participants] were on a boat and their first impact from Maltese culture and society is with the Maltese Football Association,” says Mr Busuttil.
The sessions have served to bring people together to combat the divisiveness which exists within society, as evidenced in a 2017 study by Johann Caruana on racism in Maltese football. Of the 10 athletes interviewed for the study, nine called racism in Malta “something disturbing”.
The mother of retired professional footballer Jamie Pace MacDonald, who represented the Maltese national team, described remarks hurled at her son on the pitch as “disgusting.” She once witnessed a spectator yell at Jamie, who is of Maltese and Jamaican nationality, “to go back home” and “that he doesn’t know who his father is”.
‘All in – All for football’ is a project funded by the EU and the Union of European Football Association (UEFA), which in recent years have launched a vigorous campaign to combat racism, discrimination and intolerance in the game. One of the requirements it has set football clubs for participating in European competitions is that they must actively tackle racism.
In April 2019, the Human-Rights NGO Aditus teamed up with the MFA to hold a session with football clubs on the topic of racism. Many prominent teams turned up and while they expressed deep concern about the level of racism in football, they also remarked that “it is simply a reflection of a wider sentiment present in today’s society,” according to Aditus.
The discussion highlighted the need for relevant stakeholders to continue tackling this issue into the future.
In Italy, Mr Mohammed experienced “not one, not two, not three…” incidents of racism but many.
However, since he arrived in Malta six months ago things have been different and his life has changed for the better.
“I like the Maltese and the country a lot… I would like it if we could do more of this,” he nods towards Ms Ellul and his teammates who are having a chat while they cool down.