Football for Hope Festival Includes Innovative Methodology

Alexandra, South Africa --

In order to create social change, one must be willing to take a new approach towards long-standing issues. For this reason, innovation within any development organization is crucial, but especially so when it comes to using sports to aid social development. With the FIFA Football for Hope Festival bringing together thirty-two teams that are using innovative models in their approach to youth development, it is only fitting that the festival itself include innovative methodology.

While there have been tournaments similar to this festival in the past, Alexandra 2010 is the first time that it has occurred as an official World Cup event and included thirty-two teams. The festival itself can be considered an innovative model as it incorporates a global aspect to the development aspect that would be missing from simply remaining in one country.

Youth from every corner of the world have traveled to Alexandra and for many of them it is their first time leaving their home country, never mind interacting with their peers from all over the world. Outside of the football aspect, this in itself is a major vehicle of learning and cross-cultural exchange.

Cultural performances, team building activities, demonstrations of art and football, and a youth forum have all encouraged this intercultural exchange prior to the festival actually beginning. When it comes to the actual gameplay, there have been modifications put into place to ensure that fair play and development are the focus, rather than simply scoring goals.

Streetfootballworld, one of FIFA's strategic alliance partners for the festival, has implemented their innovative model of football, which they cleverly have nicknamed “football3”. The three refers to the three halves during the match, which is the two halves of actual gameplay and the pre- and post- match discussion.

During the festival, the pre-match discussion focuses around whether teams would like to have throw-ins or kick-ins, whether there should be corner kicks and whether or not teams should clap when the other team scores a goal. These issues must be agreed upon prior to the match in order for it to begin, which can sometimes require a compromise between the teams.

Rather than using a referee, the matches are self-refereed by the players in order to facilitate dialogue and allowing them to take ownership over the match. An unbiased mediator is present on the sidelines in order to keep track of time and to step in just in case there is a disagreement that cannot be diffused. If the match is getting to physical or fair play is not being adhered to, the mediators have the authority to bring the players together and talk things over.

At the end of the match, players are encouraged to exchange huge and high-fives with their opponents and then make their way over to the post-match discussion. This discussion is facilitated by the mediators as they ask both teams how they thought the match went, in fair play terms.

With fair play being the focus of the festival, the Fair Play Trophy understandably holds a great deal of prestige amongst the teams. The trophy is awarded based upon the accumulation of fair play points, which teams can earn after the end of the game during the post-match discussion. A team can either elect to award a fair play point to the other team or they can choose not to do so, but must give a justification for this decision.

This transparent system allows for dialogue amongst the players after the match and is designed to promote respect, mutual understanding, self-confidence and a sense of responsibility amongst the players.

While this system has been tried and tested by streetfootballworld, the festival is still the largest coming together of this innovative methodology and intercultural exchange that the social development and football world has witnessed. Many organizations promote cross-cultural understanding among youth from around the world, but by bringing together youth that all have something in common in the sense that football is hope for them, it allows for a generation of new leaders to grow and learn from one another.

Innovative models and methods are crucial to creating progress and the culmination of all of the social development methodology on display during the festival is innovative in its own right. One can only hope that these types of festivals will continue in the future, with each program taking home a few new innovations and best practices from other organizations.

The true test for these organizations and the festival itself will be in a few years time we will be able to judge how successful the methodology has been in creating the next generation of leaders in each of the communities that have participated.