Final tournament of “Football Meets Culture” with over 600 children

It was already the 14th FtK final tournament and once again more than just a sporting test of strength. The event is the annual highlight of the educational program, which offers the over 700 participants not only football training but also skills training, particularly language training. Training and learning takes place twice a week in two half periods at 23 locations nationwide. What’s special: The program takes place in cooperation with professional clubs in the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga. At the Lilies, the program has been running together with the Bernhard-Adelung School for several years.

Florian Holzbrecher, Head of Events & CSR at SVD, explains the process in Darmstadt: “We provide a trainer for the weekly program and promote the motivation of the participating children through the charisma of the club and unique events such as children’s press conferences, stadium tours or game visits. In this way, together with “Football Meets Culture”, we are particularly reaching children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, who often feel less addressed by regular school lessons and therefore particularly benefit from the additional support in language, movement and culture. It’s great to see how the kids, led by our trainer Nils Buhr and teacher Ben Schneider, not only learn the content, but also grow together as a real team and perform like that.”

The final tournament in Darmstadt represents the integrative nature of the educational program. United by the motivating power of football, children from different countries of origin came together for a big football festival where they were able to represent the colours of their respective partner clubs. The participants not only showed the footballing progress they have made in the past year, but also experienced solidarity, fair play and teamwork first hand. The joy was particularly great in Hamburg and Duisburg: the groups from the primary school at Glinder Au (U10) and Herbert-Grillo-Gesamtschule (U14) were able to secure victory and the coveted challenge cups on behalf of FC St. Pauli and MSV Duisburg into the Darmstadt sky. A special honour was given to the groups from Braunschweig (Diesterwegstraße primary school) and Mainz (IGS Mainz Bretzenheim), who were awarded the Fair Play Cup for their exemplary behaviour.

In addition, there was a special award on the program in Germany in the year of the European Football Championship: As part of the FtK-EuropaChallenge, the children dealt with various European countries and their cultures over the past six months. The results were judged by a jury consisting of Matthias Bader (professional footballer of SV Darmstadt 98 and FtK program sponsor), Franziska Fey (CEO of the DFL Foundation), Jonas Kozinowski (author of “What is What – Football”), Karin Plötz (Director of LitCam) and Anton Schumacher (pedagogical director of Eintracht Frankfurt’s youth performance center) was evaluated and now awarded at the final tournament. The winners from the primary school at Glinder Au were delighted.

The variety of exercise stations also provided variety, where children and visitors could demonstrate their soccer skills on a goal wall and a shot force measuring system, among other things, and continue to grow together as a team in various group games.

Dr. Nadine Seddig, Head of Programs and Funding Management, who has been supporting FtK with the DFL Foundation as a nationwide partner since 2012, emphasized the central role of the tournament in the success of the project: “The final tournament is the absolute highlight of the FtK program every year. The great anticipation of the participating children can be felt by everyone and the atmosphere on site is characterised by a great sense of togetherness. It’s always nice to see how everyone comes together to play football together, have fun and achieve a goal as a team. This makes the tournament a great success again this year!

Karin Plötz, director of LitCam gGmbH, which has been implementing the integrative educational program since 2007, also drew a positive conclusion: “This year’s final tournament was once again the absolute highlight of the “Football Meets Culture” program year. The children love to show what they can do while playing football. And they experience how important team spirit, fairness and respect are. They are proud to be taking part in such a big tournament. It will be an unforgettable experience for all the kids.”