Following on from the success of last year’s Football for Unity festival — hosted by Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI) alongside EURO 2020 — the tournament is being brought back this year with support from Dublin City Council, the Dublin City Sport and Wellbeing Partnership and the UEFA Foundation for Children Monday.
The aim is to showcase the potential of football as an educational tool which can bring communities together and promote social inclusion for newcomers to Ireland.
The tournament will take place by way of a number of tournaments in various age categories and at venues across the north-east inner city of Dublin between the 6th of June and the 15th of July.
The inspiration for the tournament and its location comes from the old Gloucester Diamond in the area where crowds used to gather to watch seven a side tournaments with the grandstands being the old flats that towered above the players but which have now largely been demolished.
The tournament was held last year as part of the hosting of the Euro 2020 games in Dublin. While they ultimately fell to Covid, the outreach programme went ahead as one of seven similar tournaments across Europe.
SARI — in conjunction with local stakeholders NEIC, UNHCR, Irish Refugee Council, Dublin City Council, the FAI and Bohemian FC — hosted the festival incorporating football alongside a Youth Forum and a Legacy programme of training nights.
The tournaments are free to enter and open to various age groups. Matches will take place at four all-weather Astro pitches across the north-east inner city at Larkin College, O’Connell School, Hubert Fuller Park at St Mary’s East Wall Youth Centre and St. Lawrence O’Toole Recreation Centre. Other pitches, including the Commons street MUGA at Mariners Port, will be used for training nights.
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