Together with the 2008 UEFA European Football Cup and the 2008 European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, football is serving as an important occasion for intercultural understanding and fair play, as well as an excellent opportunity to teach these skills.

Schools in Switzerland and Austria are actively preparing for EURO 2008 and the host role they will play in connection with it. They are assuming an ambassadorial role for the 53 countries represented by UEFA, and are therefore promoting intercultural dialogue as part of both their official lessons and extracurricular activities. Students are also competing in a European championship of their own, which uses special rules of fair play.

Project objectives

• Promoting intercultural skills via projects incorporated into regular school activities, and encouraging active exchange with more than 50 UEFA countries.
• Promoting fair play and social responsibility in a playful manner.
• Using EURO 2008 to encourage action among children and young people throughout Europe.
• Providing children, young people, teachers and parents with the fair play opportunity and international understanding on a sustainable basis so that EUR0 2008 will leave a heritage that extends well beyond the year 2008.

Project schedule and activities

Participating schools are assigned a member UEFA country by random, and play an ambassadorial role for this country for an entire school year. They organise their own football tournaments and participate in trans-regional Host City Cups to vie for participation in the final international tournament. All 53 UEFA countries will be represented there – both the "ambassadors" from Austria and Switzerland and pupils from the countries they host.

The Host City Cups and the final round will take place in parallel to EURO 2008, probably in all eight of the official host cities. The teams consist of girls and boys from the ages of 12 to 15.
In keeping with the 2008 European year of the same name, "intercultural dialogue" is the focus of the preparations that participating schools are making for their ambassadorial roles in a wider sense. In particular, schools are encouraged to hold at least one day at which they introduce "their" country and present their activities in connection with this country.
The '"fair play football" rules (mixed teams, no referees, fair play points) used at the tournaments fit in well with the aims and means of the programme.

Partners

streetfootballworld (sfw)
FairPlay / Vienna Institute for Development (vidc)

Website EUROSCHOOLS 2008

Contact

Katharina Haab
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+41 (0)32 344 30 54

In the media

Euro08 zu Gast in den Schulen
Bildung Schweiz, 5 / 2007, pdf 439KB

Schüler werden Botschafter
Freiburger Nachrichten 10.5.2007, pdf 1,3MB