Fearing potential violence among fans at the upcoming World Cup soccer tournament, the Council of Europe and community organizations have taken a number of initiatives to promote tolerance between supporters of opposing teams.
For three days this week 150 young soccer fans from all across Europe will participate in the Youth Peace Camp at Europa-Park, a German theme park with different sections portraying life in various European countries.
"A few days working together and meeting with anti-racist and anti-violence activists may help create a snowball effect," said Radim Bures, Chair of the Council of Europe Committee on Prevention of Spectator Violence.
The Council of Europe (COE), an international organization formed in 1949 to promote human rights and rule of law on the continent, is one of the primary sponsors of the camp. It is cooperating in the initiative with anti-racism community organizations in the Football Against Racism network and the Europa-Park management.
The camp will take place June 4-7, during which fans will participate in ice-breaking activities and soccer tournaments. They will also attend workshops on fighting spectator violence, promoting fair play, and engaging in intercultural dialogue through sport. In the evenings, a Fan Café, run by the participants themselves, will show highlight videos of past soccer matches and hold a disco night.
Participants are between the ages of 18 and 25 and include both women and minorities. Most come from the 14 European countries whose national soccer teams qualified for the World Cup. An additional 30 places were reserved for non-European participants in order to render the event more international. The participants were chosen by local organizations invited by the COE to join the program because of their work to promote tolerance in sport.
According to COE representatives, the short-term aim is to have participants acquire skills and ideas to share with other fans so they can be "peace message-spreaders" and help curb violence at the World Cup, which starts on June 9.
But the camp is also part of a longer-term effort by the Council of Europe to prevent spectator violence, campaign against racism and build bridges between youth from different countries.
"Any preventive measure is a long-term investment," said Bures. "The long-term effort is not only to suppress violent hooligans but also to promote a positive fun culture."
According to Anna Kehl from the COE Press Division, the organization sponsors the Youth Peace Camp once a year. Past camps have brought together Israelis and Palestinians, as well as youth from different communities in Kosovo. Most have been held at a youth center in Strasbourg, France, but this year, the decision was made to change the venue to Europa-Park.
"The setting of Europa-Park is much more fun," said Kehl. "The last secretary general [of the COE] and the managing director of Europa-Park are friends. It's by chance that the two bosses knew each other and came together [for this project]."
Street Kick Games Ease Tensions at 'Hot Spots'
Another measure being taken to ease racial tension at the World Cup is the use of a game called Street Kick. According to Lisa Sultanti, an education worker for the British community organization Football Unites, Racism Divides, Street Kick is a large inflatable court on which fans from opposing teams are invited to play against each other in three-on-three soccer matches.
"It is a short, but really fast game," she said. "The rules are about being good sportspeople. The game itself has big huge banners with anti-racism messages Velcroed to the inside so they are very visible."
After working as a trainer at the Youth Peace Camp, Sultanti will join a Street Kick tour that will travel to a number of cities in Germany in an attempt to engage fans and break down xenophobic ideas. She and her colleagues plan to set up the game in fan zones outside of stadiums in the hours before a match starts.
Sultanti says that in the past the match has proven to be effective at easing tensions and preventing violence, both at "hot spots" in her own city of Sheffield and at international events.
"At the Euro 2004 in Portugal, it was a big success," she said. "At any match where we used these measures and worked with rival fans, there were no signs of violence.
"I didn't witness any racism. A lot of it was quite light hearted."
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