ISRAEL: SOCCER - English premiership football club Arsenal launch youth soccer schools in Israel.

Record ID: 398525

  • Title: ISRAEL: SOCCER - English premiership football club Arsenal launch youth soccer schools in Israel.
  • Date: 23rd November 2005
  • Summary: MV: AUDIENCE APPLAUDING
  • Embargoed: 8th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA83R0CS6MJ6MNLS37DKFFEOITT
  • Story Text: Arsenal launched five youth soccer schools in Israel on Monday (November 21) in the club's latest attempt to spread the word of soccer to youngsters around the globe as part of their 'Arsenal in the Community' programme.
    Towns and cities in a dozen countries, ranging from Soweto in South Africa to the eastern Ukraine area, still feeling the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, have already benefited from the initiative.
    Monday's official launch took place in Kiryat Ono, a middle class suburb of Tel Aviv, but the four other schools all reach out to less wealthy areas in Israel with predominantly Arab populations.
    "Football can be used as a small part in conflict resolution and this is why we are so pleased to be here," Alan Sefton, who heads the programme, told Reuters at the launch.
    "This is community, about community, about improving the lives of children, particularly young children through sport, bringing people together. We've go to encourage whatever the adults do and however the adults are messing up this world of ours, as far as children are concerned, we can't allow that to happen. We've got to bring children together, bring fun into their lives, enjoyment and there's no better game to play than football," Sefton added.
    The schools, which opened earlier this year, are situated in the Arab towns of Tira and Umm el-Fahm in central Israel, Rahat, an impoverished Bedouin town in Negev desert and in the mixed Jewish-Arab region of Misgav in the verdant hills of Galilee.
    Arsenal's involvement in Israel began at the request of the Misgav Regional Council, a previously untroubled area in the north of the country which was hit by the effects of the Palestinian uprising five years ago.
    Israeli security forces shot dead 13 Israeli Arabs in October 2000 when they tried to quell demonstrations in support of the Palestinians.
    Sefton said on Monday that the programme in Misgav, where Jewish and Bedouin Arab children train train together, has been a great success.
    "(The council) now say that it is one of the most successful cultural projects in bringing people together in that region, and that's terrific," he said.
    The project's aim is to train soccer coaches who pass their knowledge to the youngsters.
    After Misgav, the programme was expanded to include other towns and villages as part of a summertime "Football for Peace (F4P)" programme led by lecturers from Brighton University in southern England.
    'We are very glad that Arsenal decided to make this project in Israel and we can see a big boost to our kids... to try to be like the Gunners," former Israeli great Mordechai Spiegler said.
    Players who stand out will be picked for a mixed Arab and Jewish team for next year's edition of the annual Arsenal International Soccer Festival in August in Surrey, south of London.
    The festival brings together youth teams from around the world for matches and coaching under an Arsenal umbrella.
    Israel is not the only Middle East country attracting the club's interest. The club has a soccer school in Egypt and is also talking with parties in Jordan and Dubai, home to the club's main sponsors Emirates Airlines, while an Iraqi team played at last year's Arsenal festival.
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