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The REPLAY project is accompanying 5 Italian football clubs that are developing projects to include displaced children. From this phase and the test period in the club Liberi Nantes, the consortium is producing tools to support the prospect project managers. We are happy to share with you one of those, the administrative guide for clubs on International Migrants Day, a key date to celebrate human rights and inclusion.
Sport in general, and football even more, has proven its capacity to bring together diverse groups and support their inclusion. Indeed, football is the most popular sport in the world, it is a team sport with strong values and requires little equipment to play. It is thus a very interesting tool with young people, to get them to engage in daily activities outside of class with other young people that they would have not met otherwise.
But one of the first obstacles you may face is making sense of the legal requirements of welcoming displaced people in your club, especially in smaller grassroot sporting organisations that are volunteer-driven. Different scales and sources of legislation come into play, from FIFA regulation to more local rules, and the case figure depends on many variables in the situation of the children included. You may feel discouraged before even having started.
Unfortunately, we cannot offer you a case-by-case guide to signing up displaced teenagers, as there are almost as many options as there are stories. This is a reality you cannot avoid, but the REPLAY consortium has worked on a guide to give you keys to understanding the workings of the requirements in Italy as well as where and who to turn to. Some of the tips can also be applied to other countries, as they address realities known in most European countries when welcoming displaced children.
What can you find in the guide?
The guide offers advice on different elements of the registration process such as:
- legal requirements,
- how to assess the initial situation,
- how to overcome possible challenges,
- working with authorities and local organisations that can help you,
- the main dos and don’ts we’ve identified so far,
Its goal is to help you navigate the intricate administrative system to help you register displaced children that are interested in joining the club. At first, you may only have the capacities to welcome 1 or 2 children, but don’t let it deter you from developing your inclusion policy! Like any project you will need to adjust your reality and to not shoot too high from the beginning, but that only means you have space to improve and grow later on!
Other useful resources from the REPLAY project include the translation of the FIRE+ MOOC into Italian, available here (https://canvas.instructure.com/enroll/84PWKY). It already exists in French (https://canvas.instructure.com/enroll/ELGMYN) and English (https://canvas.instructure.com/enroll/3HAYEW) (Polish and Latvian versions coming soon!) and focuses on every step of project management to include displaced people in sporting activities, as well as the characteristics of displaced people as a public. We will share another guide soon with advice on a later stage of the process, which is how to communicate around your initiative, and the project will end with the production of an advocacy paper with the recommendations of the consortium on the topic of inclusion in and through sport. Don’t hesitate to use these resources to develop your own initiatives!
The REPLAY project is an 18-month project funded by the European Commission PPPA for Sport program coordinated by PLAY International. Its goal is to develop a methodology of action to accompany clubs in Italy that wish to welcome displaced young people in their organisations with concrete tools and advice on how to navigate project management and the specificities of including displaced children. You can learn more and follow the project on the social media of each partner (PLAY International, Sport and Citizenship, and Liberi Nantes) or on the project webpage : https://www.play-international.org/en/projects/replay-refugees-play-united