As we saw yesterday, many people lost their lives, and many were injured during the attack by bombs in the war happening between Ukraine and Russia. We pray for the people in Ukraine and convey our condolences to the family members who lost their loved ones. We see in this article how football matches were played for Peace.
Rome hosted a star-studded football match hosted by Pope Francis to support world peace in the world. The game, played at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, was conceived after a meeting between Pope Francis and former Argentine player Javier Zanetti. The game saw some of the biggest names in football split between the Liga XI and the Rest of the World XI in a match broadcast live on Italian TV. The United for Peace match took place at the Olympic Stadium hosted by Pope Francis, whose significance was highlighted by many former footballers who did their best to attend the game.
In 2015, Football for Peace Global pioneered the peace process of football diplomacy, which includes peace games, traditional programs known as “peace cities”, and sports diplomacy tools to influence social change. The campaign, jointly launched by FIFA and Norway’s Nobel Peace Centre, combines football’s global reach with a simple handshake to promote peace and fair play. The handshake peace initiative of FIFA and the Nobel Peace Center was featured in all competitions at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, making this powerful gesture of friendship and respect the most powerful sports platform reaching over a billion people. During the World Cup from June 12 to July 13, we saw the captains and referees of both teams would shake hands for peace at the end of each match.
The Haitian national team and world football champion Brazil played a friendly match in the capital Port-au-Prince to promote peace and call on armed groups to hand over their weapons. Brazil’s five-time world champion Ronaldo, and everything in between took part in a ‘peace game’ on the beleaguered island of Haiti to achieve what thousands of UN peacekeepers have so far failed to achieve, achievable goals. Defending World Cup champion Brazil, a country of about 170 million people, has a Haitian national team. As part of Brazil’s goodwill mission, Brazil took the FIFA World Cup into the National Stadium won Brazil in 2002.
After the entry, the Haitian national team went out of action, and one by one, the reigning world champions overtook the Haitian national team and shook hands respectfully with all the Haitian players. Football matches serve as the basis for raising public awareness of peace and stability in Zamani, a city in Mayo Tsanaga, in the far north of the Cameroon region. The IFA wants a friendly match to demonstrate that the game should not be used as a political tool at the international level.
