Football is one of the most followed sports in today’s society.
The Beautiful Game is so powerful that can bring together people from all sections of the society, irrespective of their gender, race, social status and physical ability.
This year, the Malta Football Association has been an active player in this sector with the launching of its second project on refugee inclusion, named ‘All in – All For Football’.
This social responsibility initiative was a continuation of the ‘Include Me and I Will Understand’ project, held last year, which saw the participation of over 300 persons, mostly refugees and vulnerable people, 12 clubs and a number of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
The ‘All In – All For Football’ project saw football clubs, NGOs and agencies, including AWAS, Appoġġ, LEAP and others come together to offer inclusion sessions, using football and football-related activities to integrate refugees, Maltese nationals and vulnerable people of all ages.
Peter Busuttil, who co-ordinated this project on behalf of the Malta FA’s Football Social Responsibility Department, said that these projects were co-funded by the European Union as well as from the European governing body UEFA and thus helped to spread the project around several clubs in Malta and Gozo.
“The aim of these projects was to help the integration of refugees and vulnerable in the game of football,” Busuttil said.
“Football has several aspects which also include administration, first aid, refereeing, coaching as well as literacy which helps participants, which come from various different countries, to play the game together.
“When we talk about integration we are not talking about having a group of refugees practicing football separately but to integrate with clubs and the different communities they represent.
“In fact, through this programme this year we touched with 20 different areas in Malta such as Birkirkara, Birżebbuġa, Marsa, Żurrieq, Fgura, St Paul’s Bay as well as others in Gozo where their football clubs provided their facilities to be part of this project.
“The participating clubs benefited from this project as we used the money we received from the EU and UEFA for this project to hire their coaches, co-ordinators, equipment as well as their pitch facilities, amongst other sessions related to football.”
Busuttil said that the ‘All In – All For Football’ project has also played a key role in helping Premier League side Senglea Athletics to start setting up their football nursery.
“Our project this year has been beneficial also for a club like Senglea Athletic in their setting up of a football nursery,” Busuttil said.
“In fact, through our collaboration with government agencies such as LEAP and Appoġġ, who work in the community, they referred to us youngsters from the Cottonera area and other regions who are interested in playing football and we managed to assemble a group of 30 boys and girls, which included both Maltese and foreign children.
“There is also the initiative taken by the Fgura FC nursery who are hosting refugees who are in the U-18 age bracket and who live in that area and at the Fgura Open Centre and provide them with training and literacy sessions at their club premises.”
Busuttil said that where refugees finding it difficult to go to football clubs, the MFA , as part of the All IN project decided to go themselves to the various training centres such as Ħal Far, Birżebbuġa and Marsa.
“Three times a week we went to the football pitches in the open centres such as Marsa where we met 60 persons every time and hold training sessions,” Busuttil said.
“During these sessions we split them in different groups – families, females, adults and children.
“To hold these camps you need equipment such as football shoes. Given that there almost 1,500 refugees in these open centres, it was almost impossible to buy shoes for all the residents.
“So what we did was that we bought 20 pairs of shoes of different sizes, from children up to adults, and when the participants arrive they take off their shoes, find their size and use them for the training sessions. Once they finish they put them back so they can be used by others.
“In that way we saved a lot of money but at the same time we provided them with the opportunity of playing the Beautiful Game with the right shoes. My appeal that whoever wants to provide us with used football shoes to use in these projects are very welcome to do so.”
Another success story of this project was the mobile pitch being used at the Ħal Far ground.
“Part of the funds received for this project were used to create a mobile pitch,” he said.
“We wanted to install this mobile pitch in an area where there are the biggest number of refugees so that is why we decided to put it near the open centres in Birżebbuġa and Ħal Far.
“For this pitch we were donated used turf from the Luxol ground, which was still in a good condition, and with the help of the residents we managed to cover almost three quarters of the pitch, we cleaned all the surrounding area and thus these refugees played a starring role to have their own playing space.”
Another major success story from this project has been the creation of a football team made up of players coming from Syria, Latvia, Chad, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Somalia and Malta.
“The team, named Syria Gżira FC, is currently playing in the Swan League and all the funds to create this team has come from this project,” Busuttil said.
“We are also providing them training facilities in Sta Venera as well as various coaches from different clubs.”
Busuttil said that through this project they involve vulnerable people, refugees and Maltese people also in the match experience area.
“For the recent Women’s Euro 2021 qualifier between Malta and Italy, which was played at the Centenary Stadium, we brought over children from the Open Centres in Ħal Far, who acted as player escorts,” Busuttil said.
“It was an incredible experience not only for them but also for both the Maltese and the
Italian players who were surprised at how much we manage to successfully provide integration.
“This initiative took further political significance as it happened at a time when there was a fall-out between the Maltese government and the Italian authorities on who would host the immigrants who were stranded out at sea.”
FIFA recognition
Busuttil said that all these initiatives helped to secure five-times more finances from the EU to create another project for the next two years known as Play Football Live Football.
“The project will be based on the continuation of training sessions with clubs but more importantly we are looking to increase the number of teams created by this project and who play in Amateur Leagues to six,” he said.
Busuttil said that all this work has been recognised by UEFA who have mentioned four projects of the Malta FA in their Refugee and Football publication for best practice.
A young footballer during a training session in an Open Centre.“More than that we have also been nominated for the FIFA Diversity Award,” Busuttil said.
“We have been shortlisted among six other finalists from around the world, through our projects ‘All in – All For Football’ as well as ‘Include Me And I Will Understand’ and that is some achievement as we were the only national football association to be nominated.
“That is a huge boost for our efforts and we now look forward to continue providing opportunities to more people in our society to be part of the football family.”