“Show the world we are one”: The role of football in peacebuilding attempts

Abstract

There is a growing field of local administered initiatives using, formerly leisure activities or hobbies, as tools to achieve social development of different types, from encouraging school attendance to facilitating peace attempt in conflict situations. Football is one such example, frequently used due to its wide reach both to participants but also to spectators with an interest in the game, though suffering from a lack of evidence to justify the rhetoric, particularly with respect to those claiming to support peacebuilding attempts. This paper aims to answer the research question: how organisations working with football assert that participatory football aids peacebuilding through the formation of relationships between antagonistic (or potentially antagonistic) parties in line with Lederach’s theoretical understanding? In order to do so this paper uses two qualitative methodologies, document analysis and interviews, to provide a more holistic understanding of the different ways and justifications given for participatory football transforming relationships and thus aiding peacebuilding attempts. The study compares Lederach’s theoretical understanding with the rationale from UN and FIFA, who promote this use of football together with the organisations running the projects on the ground, and coaches who are face-to-face with the focus of the relationship transformation process. The author was thus able to discern that, while there is some evidence that relationships at an individual level are transformed positively, little evidence exists that this transformation leads to changes of attitudes beyond: for example local communities or national power brokers. This thesis suggests further longitudinal studies are necessary within this field to provide evidence to prove or disprove the assertion that participatory football aids peacebuilding through the formation of relationships between antagonistic parties.