FURD's Talent Match coach Saudat Adinani was recently selected to represent FARE (Football Against Racism in Europe) as a young leader at the International Football3 Festival in Cologne (Koln) on 14th -18th September 2017.
The international organisation Street Football World worked in partnership with Rhein Flanke to organise the Festival.
Football3 is a way of using football for social change. It is football with a twist, different rules. It works on the values and principles of fair play and respect:
Football3 is divided in 3 'halves': the first is the pre-match discussion: both teams get together and the fixed rules are explained e.g. no referees, respect one another etc. They also agree 3 open rules, that they choose themselves e.g. if a goal is scored, both team celebrate etc.
The second part is the match itself. The third part is the post-match discussion where the teams reflect on how they played, discuss if they complied with the fixed rules and their own open rules and then award each other points based on how fairly the teams played. Since Football3 is played without a referee, the players have to resolve conflicts by means of dialogue and compromise.
The role of the young leaders was to facilitate and mediate the pre and post match discussions.
The young leaders and delegations came from all over Europe; from Portugal, Poland, Italy, France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain, Germany (of course) and England. Over 100 participants attended the festival.
Various workshops were organised where the participants were able to learn about integration and cultural differences in a fun way, tried out many new sports and visited the cathedral city together.
A highlight of the event was the visit of the Dortmund footballer and Football3 ambassador Sebastian Rode.
For photos, please see the links below to our social media feeds.