European Union

Fifty football coaches from Israel will travel to the UK to take part in training camps this week (29 March – 2 April). Unlike regular coach training however, the camp will focus on the skills required to use sport as a tool to empower young people and build bridges between communities.  Football 4 Peace is celebrating its 10th anniversary in Israel. In ten years it has grown from being a small project involving a handful of children from neighbouring communities in the north to a nationwide event which last year brought together over 1600 youngsters from 30 Jewish and Arab communities. The coaches are trained in a unique methodology which focuses on values and not on winning. The coaches will use the skills they learn to run Football 4 Peacecamps this summer.

Football 4 Peace is an international community relations and reconciliation initiative developed by the British Council, the Israel Sports Authority, the University of Brighton in the UK and the Sports University in Cologne, Germany.  The European Union funds the coach training programme which also prepares coaches and local leaders to plan, organise and implement their own cross community activities, mentored by leaders from the UK and Germany.

The Israeli coaches will be joined by coaches from Jordan and Ireland where the programme also runs as well as volunteers from the University of Brighton and the German Sports University in Cologne, many of whom will travel to Israel this summer to help run the programme. The training will take place at the Chelsea School of Sport, part of the University of Brighton where the unique methodology was developed.

For more information or to set up interviews with programme leaders or coaches, please contact

UK: Alex Bratt [email protected] +44 (0) 207 389 4872
Israel: Varda Bachrach [email protected] 03 611 3607, 054566 3593.

The British Council is the UK’s international cultural relations organisation and operates in over 100 countries worldwide.

In Israel the British Council deepens the bilateral relationship between the UK and Israel through programmes and activities in global citizenship, the arts, education and English. 
www.britishcouncil.org/israel