Building Partnerships– Making a Difference

Building partnerships – challenging racism through

sports

Summary

Sports against racism, the work continues.

Give racism a red card.

“Only in sports I don’t feel like a foreigner”.

“Sport has the power to unite people”. (Nelson Mandela)

Worldwide there still are many challenges in the fields of racism, discrimination and

xenophobia.

Sports are important to struggle these evils.

Meanwhile, sports still face a number of challenges related to racism, discrimination and

xenophobia.

We identified good strategies for cities to combat racism,

discrimination and xenophobia.

We shared good experiences and practices concerning sports.

Recommendations for the ECCAR

1. In addition to improving the health of citizens, use sports to play a social, cultural, educational and recreational role.

2. Use football against racism for everyone's security and equal value.

3. Use sports as a secure meeting place bringing people together.

4. Create intercultural dialogue through sports.

5. Implement the social commitment of clubs throughout the local society.

6. Show a positive attitude towards society.

7. Projects should run longer than one year (2/3 years) to start and to develop a new integration project and to reach sustainable results.

Find also methods to evaluate the projects.

8. The target groups of integration projects should be open for everyone.

9. Sports have more aspects than sports ‘only’. The fundings for sport clubs, sport projects,… should not only be given from the sport budgets.

10. Develop visions about the democratic potential that sport clubs can have and what role they can play in creating a tolerant society.

11. Document your work and expose your work to the community and motivate others to follow. Ensure that your efforts are made visible and inspire others.

12. Education is very important. Educate, both theoretically and practically, club leaders, coaches and players on how to promote tolerance and to prevent racism.

13. Make use of the fact that sports is maybe the only ‘place’ where the European and international diversity is visible.

14. Stimulate contacts with other cultures. Sports are an ideal way to meet people from other cultures.

15. Let the different cultures work together.

16. Appoint a community manager of sports instead of a community manager of football.

17. Cities, use all the means you have to avoid racism in the local stadiums.

18. Show trainers, who have a central role, good practices.

19. Politics has to create a framework with(out) obligations. Use for example the non-discrimination clause when constructing a new football stadium.

20. Organize (youth) sports tournaments against racism.

21. Use ‘football against racism’ in the cities involved in ECCAR.

22. Organize a football match with a Roma football team.