Project: 10,000 Children in Fun Football Schools Across the Balkans

Around 10,000 children aged 7 to 14 will gather for five-day “Open Fun Football Schools” to be held simultaneously in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Kosovo in the second half of August.

This humanitarian project, titled “Open Fun Football Schools”, organized by the Danish non-governmental organization CCPA (Cross Cultures Project Association), uses fun games and pedagogical fun football as a concept to stimulate reconciliation, rapprochement, and peacebuilding among communities of different ethnic structures.

The fun football schools are organized by leaders and coaches - volunteers, who are trained to work with children through special seminars held at the national and regional levels. The first regional seminar for this year's fun football schools will be held from August 4-6 in Kopaonik, Serbia.

- I would, of course, be a proud father if my son or daughter played football as well as Messi or Martha, but what is really important is that my children are happy, have healthy habits, and are in the company of good friends. That is precisely the purpose of the Open Fun Football Schools - stated the founder of the CCPA organization and the “Open Fun Football Schools” project, Anders Levinsen.

This project began back in 1998 in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina, and today it is active in almost all former Yugoslav countries, as well as in about fifteen other countries in the Caucasus, Middle East, and Africa.

The project in the Balkans is financed by UEFA and the local communities participating in the project. Also, significant support is achieved through football governing bodies, through the development of the “Grassroots Football” project in the Balkan countries.