Israeli Jews and Arabs to play together in new IFA soccer initiative

The new partnership with the English Chelsea FC will enable the initiative to reach more than 1,000 Arab and Jewish students across Israel during the 2021/2022 soccer season.

Chelsea coach playing with young Israelis during their 2019 visit. (photo credit: CHELSEA FC/COURTESY)
Chelsea coach playing with young Israelis during their 2019 visit.
(photo credit: CHELSEA FC/COURTESY)
The Chelsea Football Club Foundation, Peres Center for Peace and Innovation and the Israel Football Association (IFA) released a joint statement on Monday, announcing a partnership to expand the "Playing Fair, Leading Peace" program, as part of Chelsea Foundation's "Say No to Hate" campaign funded by the club's Jewish-Russian owner Roman Abramovich.
Peres Center's "Playing Fair, Leading Peace" initiative, started in 2016, enrolls both Jewish and Arab university students to participate in anti-discrimination and leadership training.
Following their training, the students will work in pairs of Jews and Arabs, to implement soccer activities for young children in mixed Jewish-Arab schools.
Chelsea FC, the current holders of the prestigious UEFA Champions League, began their cooperation with the IFA and Peres Center during Chelsea's women's team visit to Israel in 2019, where they took part in soccer and education workshops designed to instill teamwork and comradery between young Jewish and Arab girls in Israel.

"During our visit to Israel in 2019, we saw first-hand the power football can have in bringing together communities and breaking down barriers," said Chelsea FC Chairman Bruce Buck.

"We hope that this new initiative will empower children to harness the respect and fairness in football and use those values to promote tolerance, unity and inclusion in society," Buck added.
The new partnership with the English soccer club will enable the initiative to reach more than 1,000 Arab and Jewish students across Israel during the 2021/2022 soccer season.
This is not the first time Chelsea's owner Roman Abramovich has funded projects with the aim of celebrating Jews in sports.
Last year, his soccer club launched an exhibition called “49 Flames – Jewish Athletes and the Holocaust," featuring a commemorative mural made by artist Solomon Souza, of Jewish soccer players perished during the Holocaust.

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"This groundbreaking collaboration is a testament to the partner's belief in the power of football to be a connecting bridge on the pitch and everywhere," said IFA President Oren Hasson.
"No barrier, natural or artificial, will prevent the common future of us all in the field of football and in every other aspect in life," Hasson added.