Building BRIDGES: Football connecting people
On 19th of October Centre for Peace Studies together with Football Club Zagreb 041 held their first event in Zagreb, Croatia, as part of the project Bridges! The event organised was a mixed-team football tournament, meaning the teams consisted of both men, women and children, and it was organised in the neighbourhood Dugave. The main goal of the tournament was spending and active day in the sunshine, playing sports, having fun and hanging out all together!
The tournament was held in the home field of FC041, and lasted throughout the day and into the evening. Besides football, there were plenty of games for kids, and a culinary team that made sure no one stayed hungry! The tournament was attended by a big group of different supporters of the football club, locals from the neighbourhood, as well as people from the reception centre for asylum seekers that is located nearby.
There were 10 teams competing, Are you Syrious?, a team that consisted of AYS volunteers, women players of FC041 and refugees, CMS team consisting of workers and volunteers of CMS as well as refugees, Bicpop team of bike repair volunteers, FPZG, a team of political science students, MAZ, team consisting of members of Antifascist Network Zagreb, Klinci 041, a team consisting of refugee kids of the junior team of FC041, as well as several other teams: Hanan, NUP, Motka and WAZ.
The 10 teams were split into two groups all competing against each other, after which two best teams from each group met in the semifinals. The final was a game between Hanan and FPZG, a very dynamic game that ended with a 2:2 tie and led to a penalty shootout. Hanan was the better team and won the tournament!
The tournament, full of positive atmosphere, brought together locals from the neighbourhood, asylum seekers, refugees, football supporters and club members active in the neighbourhood of Dugave for a day of spending time together, eating good food and cheering for each other during the games! When the tournament ended, the main question from a lot of people was “when are we going to do this again?” Hopefully, very soon!
