Irish Football Association
The Irish Football Association are committed to developing, fostering and promoting football for all in Northern Ireland
Through the Football for All project, and other departments at the Irish FA, we are dedicated to working on issues of equality through our various projects.
RACE/ETHNICITY
WORLD UNITED
World United is an intercultural football project developed by Football for All. It is designed to increase the participation in organised football as players and as coaches amongst refugees and asylum seekers and members of ‘settled’ minority communities. The project is also intended to encourage increased social capital and community integration amongst minorities. The project features around forty players drawn from a range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
World United has support from a wide range of strategic partners including the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM), UEFA, and the EU PEACE programme.
The central focus of World United has been to utilise the power of football to promote anti-discrimination, equality, and integration. To this end, World United has developed strong links with other clubs and youth projects in Belfast and in other towns and villages in Northern Ireland. World United players have also assisted NICEM and Football for All in delivering anti-racism workshops. Participation in World United has also engendered increased bonding and bridging social capital amongst players and coaches and contributed to their wider societal integration to this end. This is evidenced through linkages between football participation and the take up of opportunities to access language skills and other educational courses.
More recently, the Women’s World United project has started, with support from the EU PEACE III funding. This runs with the same aims as the men’s project. While it is still in its infancy, Women’s World United has brought together women from many different cultures and backgrounds, with a keen interest to develop not only their sporting skills, but are moving forward to engage in skills and personal development programmes. It is hoped that in the future, Women’s World United will come to be a standalone organisation, offering skills coaching, but also anti racism workshops much like their male counterparts.
LOVE FOOTBALL HATE BIGOTRY
In December, we launched an active campaign for ‘Love Football Hate Bigotry’. This included a billboard campaign across Belfast and Derry~Londonderry, and the publication of a training and workshop menu, with a variety of courses addressing racism, sectarianism and identity which had a great uptake from community groups, football clubs and other organizations.