The Equal Game campaign, which has run for the past four seasons, aims to create positive social impact under UEFA’s overarching value of Respect. Its main purpose is to make people aware that football is for everyone, no matter who they are, where they are from and how they play.
That ethos is shared by Baldoyle United - a Dublin-based club who has been at the forefront of promoting diversity for many years - and they put it into practice by hosting football events for Direct Provision residents (asylum seekers and refugees living in special accommodation).
By hosting social 5-a-side games for young adults from the Hatch Hall and Balseskin accommodation centres in Dublin, the club were able to use the beautiful game to bring Direct Provision residents and local teenagers together.
Club Chair Dermot Penrose said: “The friendly games turn out to be great fun with families from the centres turning up to watch. Importantly, local teenagers get to hear, first-hand, the reasons some of the Direct Provision residents ended up in Ireland after fleeing war or other oppressive situations."
Baldoyle has always been a strong supporter of the annual Show Racism The Red Card and Football Against Racism in Europe events. The club’s initiatives to promote social inclusion, integration of immigrant youths, families and communities was acknowledged by UNITE, the trade union, when it awarded Baldoyle its Grassroots Club of the Year title in 2019.
Click here for more information on UEFA's Equal Game Campaign
