Leaders from Laureus-supported sports projects Europe-wide have been taking part this week in the ground-breaking Laureus Fair Play Summit at the Stade de Suisse, home of leading Swiss football team BSC Young Boys.
More than 100 young leaders, coaches and staff from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom took part in three days of networking, training and knowledge sharing in the use of sport as a social tool to improve the lives of young people.
The climax of the event was a Fair Play Street Soccer tournament played on the plaza in front of the 32,000 capacity all-seater stadium, with New Laureus Ambassador Stéphane Chappuisat, the former Borussia Dortmund footballer, taking part.
The event, supported by the Youth in Action Programme of the European Union, included interactive networking sessions, enabling participants from across Europe to widen their social and professional contacts, and sports based workshops showcasing the latest good practice in the use of sport as a social tool. The workshops promoted fair play, peace building, team building and health education and also analysed how sport could be used to tackle anti-social behaviour.
The Fair Play Street Soccer tournament demonstrated important life lessons – respecting opponents, following the rules and team work. It was won by a team from England made up of participants from the Laureus-supported Track Academy.
The mission of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation is to utilise the power of sport to address social challenges through a worldwide programme of sports related community development initiatives. Laureus supports more than 140 programmes worldwide and since its inception in 2000 has raised over €60 million for projects which have improved the lives of more than one-and-a-half million young people.
