M3 in Athens

M3 | Steering Commitee

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The Steering Committee of the CORPLAY project took place in Athens on March 18th, 2019.

The third meeting of the project was organized and hosted by KEAN – Cell of Alternative Youth Activities. During the meeting the first outputs and results were presented: the report on Literature Review; the report on the Stories collected and the study on Sport Skills and societal change.

The following steps were decided, starting from the the analysis of Learning Needs to arrive at the definition of the Training Modules.

See the Agenda

young soccers

face the pressure of the dominant group

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details of interview

Role of the Interviewed: Street soccer board member

Age: 33

Gender: male

Nationality: Portuguese

Type of radicalization: nationality based

Historical period collocation: 2013

Date/Country of the Interview: 15/02/2019, Portugal

Interviewer: Rosto Solidário

Rosto Solidario

Have you witnessed or experienced personal situations of radicalization during your activity in sport organizations? What kind of radicalizations have you detected? (Gender, politics, religion, racism, crime, homophobia…)

board member

Yes
Telling your story. What has happened? How has the story started?
In 2013, while my team was participating in a sports competition in Poznan – Poland.
Anytime we go abroad to attend sports competitions we seek to give our young athletes the opportunity to experience other activities that might foster their personal development such as recreational, cultural or educational activities. In this sense we organized a walk with our team members through the historical center of the city allowing them to get to know the historical sites. This was planned to be a normal tour of a group of 12 people, duly equipped and identified as the Portuguese team, waiting to explore a new city, considering that for most of the youngsters this was the first experience abroad.
During the tour we began to hear someone scream at our group. First in an unknown language for us (possibly Polish) and then in English. The group that approached us started by calling some of our youngsters “monkeys”, later imitating the body language of the primates and then asked the youngsters if they wanted bananas. As our youngsters stood indifferent to this insults, the attackers raised the level of insults and started to shout that our group should leave their country, continuously stating that we were not welcome.
Throughout this process and as a result of the extensive work of developing personal and social skills with these youngsters, they stayed together, kept walking, looking straight ahead and never replying to any of the insults or taunts.
How did you realize what was going on? What kind of signals could you detect? How do you explain radicalization, referring to your experience?
Initially it was not clear what was happening because the insults were in a language that our group did not understood. When the insults were voiced in English and accompanied by gestures, it became clear what our group was experiencing.
I consider this an example of radicalization considering that the behaviour of the group attacking us was a result of discrimination and prejudice against a race and nationality different from their own, triggered by the fact that our team was having a good performance in the event unlike the host team.
Have you tried to cope with this situation? What was possible to do? What have you done? Have you involved other people/organizations? Who was involved?
At the moment we tried to manage the situation trying to stay as indifferent as possible, pretending to ignore the group that was insulting us and keeping the walk as planned seeking to avoid any kind of physical or verbal confrontation. The fact that the group did not react to insults and provocations at the time doesn’t mean that had no impact over our group youngsters, especially those directly targeted by the insults.
However, as a result of our work with them, the youngsters knew that the insults and provocations they suffered were due to the lack of information and knowledge of the attacking group. The youngsters were accompanied by the whole technical team. The situation was reported to the event organization members and local authorities that did apologize but underestimated anyway the set of happenings.
Did you feel you had the skills to manage this kind of situations? Which was the most difficult part of it? Have you had any form of support?
Yes. We felt that our youngsters responded in the best way, ignoring provocations. Despite the frightening situation, we felt that it was a test on their personal development and their resilience, self-control and self-confidence (as well as the trust in the staff) were crucial.
End of the story. How did the story end up? What have you learned from this personal experience? What would you say to people who are living similar situations?
In fact, the situation has not solved per se. However, as a group we have learned that despite the humiliating experience, particularly for those affected, the support of our youngster’s peers was crucial to avoid that this bad experience has a greater (negative) impact on themselves and their self-esteem. In similar situations we believe that avoiding confrontation is the best. The fact that the aggressors were in a group galvanizes their behaviour and the confrontation can easily escalate to the physical aggression. Therefore, our position and recommendation is that in similar situations, if possible, contact should be avoided and the situation should be immediately reported to the authorities.
Conclusions. Are there other relevant aspects related to (de)radicalization that you want to highlight?
Radicalization, particularly in sports, is often fuelled by peer pressure and a great lack of information/ ignorance. It is therefore essential to foster education for citizenship and to develop with our youngsters the ability to reflect.
young soccers

ignore the provocations against peer pressure

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details of interview

Role of the Interviewed: Street soccer board member

Age: 33

Gender: male

Nationality: Portuguese

Type of radicalization: nationality based

Historical period collocation: 2016

Date/Country of the Interview: 15/02/2019, Portugal

Interviewer: Rosto Solidário

Rosto Solidario

Have you witnessed or experienced personal situations of radicalization during your activity in sport organizations? What kind of radicalizations have you detected? (Gender, politics, religion, racism, crime, homophobia…)

board member

Yes
Telling your story. What has happened? How has the story started?
In 2016, while we were participating in a sports competition in Glasgow – Scotland (at the same time that the Euro 2016 cup was being disputed and that Portugal end it up winning – which is relevant as a background for this story.
On our way from the accommodation to the venue where we were going to play, our group of 12 people, duly equipped and identified as being the Portuguese team was approached by a group of locals.
Suddenly a group of locals started to be aggressive and to intimidate us as they spit on our youngsters and insult us saying, for example, that we were Europe’s junk and demanding that we return to our country.
Our youngsters became disoriented, frightened and later frustrated that they had been treated in this way.
Staff took them from there as quickly as possible to avoid any further physical aggression by the locals.
Throughout this process and as a result of the extensive work of developing personal and social skills with these youngsters, they kept together and gave support to their peers encouraging them never to respond to any of the insults or taunts.
How did you realize what was going on? What kind of signals could you detect? How do you explain radicalization, referring to your experience?
Everything happened really fast and intensively so when we realized what was happening, it was already over. The intensity of the situation became clear when we saw fear in our youngsters face.
I consider this an example of radicalization considering that the behavior of the group of locals approaching us was a result of discrimination and prejudice against a nationality different from their own, triggered by the fact that our team was having a good performance in the event unlike the host team (who had been defeated by Portugal).
Have you tried to cope with this situation? What was possible to do? What have you done? Have you involved other people/organizations? Who was involved?
We took our youngsters from the place as soon as possible, fearing physical aggressions by the group of local inhabitants. The fact that our group did not react to the insults and provocations does not mean that it did not have an impact on group members, because in fact they were afraid, frightened and in the end revolted by the situation that they had experienced. However, as a result of our work with them, the youngsters knew that the insults and provocations they suffered were due to the lack of information and knowledge of the attacking group. The youngsters were accompanied by the whole technical team. The situation was reported to the event organization members and local authorities which end it up underestimating it taking into consideration the context in those days (Brexit, Euro cup).
Did you feel you had the skills to manage this kind of situations? Which was the most difficult part of it? Have you had any form of support?
Yes. We felt that our youngsters responded in the best way, not reacting to the provocations. Despite the frightening situation, we felt that it was a test on their personal development and their resilience, self-control and self-confidence (as well as the trust in the staff) were crucial.
End of the story. How did the story end up? What have you learned from this personal experience? What would you say to people who are living similar situations?
In fact, the situation was not resolved and the aggressors certainly kept having similar attitudes. However, as a group we have learned that despite the humiliating experience, particularly for those affected, the support of our youngster’s peers was crucial to avoid that this bad experience has a greater (negative) impact on themselves and their self-esteem. In similar situations we believe that avoiding confrontation is the best. The fact that the aggressors were in a group galvanizes their behaviour and the confrontation can easily escalate to the physical aggression. Therefore, our position and recommendation is that in similar situations, if possible, contact should be avoided and the situation should be immediately reported to the authorities.
Conclusions. Are there other relevant aspects related to (de)radicalization that you want to highlight?
Radicalization, particularly in sports, is often fuelled by peer pressure and a great lack of information/ ignorance. It is therefore essential to foster education for citizenship and to develop with our youngsters the ability to reflect.
call for stories

call for stories

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Radicalization has been defined as the social and psychological process of increasing commitment to extremist political or religious ideology. Radicalization is thought to occur during adolescence or shortly afterwards among young adults who are impressionable and seek to resolve personal negotiations of identity. Typically adolescence is a period of maturation in which young people experiment with their identity, group relationships, political ideologies and their place in the world.

We launched a CALL FOR STORIES to collect experiences in order to comprehend what radicalization is and how it can happen at grassroots sport level,  understanding which capacities and competences should be upgraded at grassroots level for a better use of sport in facing societal challenges.

The stories collected have been published at this link, as a contribution to the development of the CORPLAY educational resources and to the construction of a “counter-narration”, helping to set up the tools and guidelines useful to respond to learning needs.

 

call for stories launched by project partners

OPA – Bulgaria

OPA call for stories

web and email campaign
June 2018

KEAN – Greece

KEAN call for stories

public event
September 2018

USMA – Italy

USMA call for stories

public event
October 2018

ROSTO SOLIDARIO – Portugal

ROSTO SOLIDARIO call for stories

web and email campaign
October 2018

Multiplier event 1 - PD

ME1 | Sport and radicalization – call for stories

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USMA call for stories
5.10.2018 – PADUA, Italy

The event took place at the Univerisity of Padua and involved students, researchers and project partners. It was a good opportunity to frame the topic of the relation between radicalization, de-radicalization and sport. The situation in five european countries was presented and to gain knowledge on the theme and on the complex dynamics to be addressed, the call for stories was launched.

The conference contributions are downloadable here

Meeting in Padua

M2 | Steering Committee

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The Steering Committee of The Project took place in Padua, Italy on October 5th, 2018.

It was organized by USMA and it was held at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy and Applied Psychology (FISPPA) – University of Padua, which collaborates with USMA in the development of scientific studies.

See the Agenda

Kick off meeting in Athens

M1 | Kick off meeting

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The Kick off meeting of the CORPLAY project took place in Athens on April 10th, 2018.

The Kick-Off Meeting of the project “CORPLAY – Counter Radicalization, PLAY sport” was held on 10th April 2018, in Athens – Greece and was organized and hosted by KEAN – Cell of Alternative Youth Activities. The Meeting took place in the “Europe Direct – City of Athens” in “SERAFIO”, which constitutes the Sports Culture & Innovation Centre of the Municipality of Athens, hosting sport services, cultural activities, open workshops and initiatives of social and technological innovation.

See the Agenda

tennis player

prejudice and attitudes affect radicalization

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details of interview

Role of the Interviewed: tennis, professional

Age: 20

Gender: male

Nationality: Turkish

Type of radicalization: verbal violence and ethnic humiliation

Historical period collocation: 2013

Date/Country of the Interview: 28/01/2019, Türkiye

Interviewer:  Hacettepe University

Hacettepe University

Have you witnessed or experienced personal situations of radicalization during your activity in sport organizations? What kind of radicalizations have you detected? (Gender, politics, religion, racism, crime, homophobia…)

player

Yes, I’ve experienced. It is about ethnicity. There are different ethnicities in our country. Each one has its language. Also, each ethnic group speaks Turkish with its specific accent.
Telling your story. What has happened? How has the story started?
In 2012, I attended a tennis tournament in Antalya. There were many tennis players from different cities. There were no problems in the first days. Then some of my teammates laughed at other athletes who spoke with an accent. Worse still, the parents of my teammates also laughed at them, instead of warning their children for their misbehavior.
How did you realize what was going on? What kind of signals could you detect? How do you explain radicalization, referring to your experience?
I saw some of my team mates stare and snicker at other players who speak with an accent. Body languages ​​were disturbing. They also used verbally provocative words.Prejudice and attitudes affect radicalization.
Have you tried to cope with this situation? What was possible to do? What have you done? Have you involved other people/organizations? Who was involved?
Yes, I tried to stop them. I talked to my teammates and told them that their behavior was wrong. My teammates did not behave in the same way again. My words positively affected their behavior. Someone else wasn’t involved. Maybe they didn’t notice the misbehavior of players.
Did you feel you had the skills to manage this kind of situations? Which was the most difficult part of it? Have you had any form of support?
Yes, I felt. I hesitated before talking to my friends. I couldn’t guess whether they would accept their behavior was wrong. I gathered my courage and spoke to them. What I said was useful, and they didn’t act like that again. Actually, I expected to receive support from their parents. I did not receive any support from them.
In my opinion, it is the wrong behavior to be ridiculed by a person’s appearance, speech, and ethnic identity. What bothers me is that parents approve the improper behavior of their children.  They laughed together with their children and condoned their behavior.
End of the story. How did the story end up? What have you learned from this personal experience? What would you say to people who are living similar situations?
My teammates didn’t repeat the same attitude but didn’t apologize either. Peers can influence each other’s behavior positively or negatively. Feel free to warn your friends to any misbehaviors you have witnessed. I want to tell my peers not to be biased.I believe that if we accept people as they are, we can reduce discrimination and radicalization. I warned my friends and got positive results. I want to say that parents should be a positive example to their children and that they should not ignore their wrong behaviors.
Conclusions. Are there other relevant aspects related to (de)radicalization that you want to highlight?
In my opinion, discrimination and radicalization can be prevented if prejudice decreases, and the education level increases.

face prejudice and discrimination by talking

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details of interview

Role of the Interviewed: football coach

Age: 37

Gender: male

Nationality: Greek

Type of radicalization: ethnic discrimination

Historical period collocation: 2017

Date/Country of the Interview: 20/09/2018, Greece

Interviewer: Municipality of Evrotas

Municipality of Evrotas

Have you witnessed or experienced personal situations of radicalization during your activity in sport organizations? What kind of radicalizations have you detected? (Gender, politics, religion, racism, crime, homophobia…)

coach

I am a Football Coach and I have worked in many sport clubs and amateur football associations. Last year, while working in an amateur local football association and I was training teams of children aged between 10-15 years old, I experienced incidents of racism among the children of one of the teams.
Telling your story. What has happened? How has the story started?
This amateur local football association is a located in a quite small town, however the town is inhabited by many immigrants as it is mostly a rural area with huge areas of crops where they are usually employed. So, every year, a lot of children with migration background are enrolled in the association and take part in the training sessions.
Last year, in one of the teams which I was coaching, one kid with migration background was enrolled in the middle of the year and was the only new member.
How did you realize what was going on? What kind of signals could you detect? How do you explain radicalization, referring to your experience?
In the beginning, everything seemed to be going well, all the kids were hanging together both during the workouts and the matches and after, they were cooperating and they were also having fun. Unfortunately, at some point, I noticed that this had stopped and on the contrary the kid with the migration background was isolated, was sitting alone and during the workout the other kids were unpleasant comments, targeting his background and origin.
Have you tried to cope with this situation? What was possible to do? What have you done? Have you involved other people/organizations? Who was involved?
Firstly, as a human being but also as a football coach, who should be fair, give equal opportunities and promote cooperation, teamwork and fair play, I decided to intervene. So at first place, I arranged a meeting with all the parents of the kids and in cooperation with other coaches from the association we conducted speeches and a general talk, including parents’ opinions and thoughts, about the learning values that someone can acquire through sports, but also about deviant behaviors among kids and how they can be managed. The group meeting was followed by individual meetings with the parents of the kids who presented aggressive behavior, but also with the parents of the child that was isolated. Unfortunately, no one of the parents had realized what was going on, but they were definitely committed to begin open and ongoing conversations with their children about differences, diversity and discrimination, as we proposed.
Did you feel you had the skills to manage this kind of situations? Which was the most difficult part of it? Have you had any form of support?
In the beginning, I was very disappointed as these discriminatory incidents and the isolation of the child were escalating and I felt that I was not prepared or trained to handle a situation like that, but I was feeling that I had to solve this problem. So I started researching on the web, reading studies and ways approaching those kind of situations, as well as practices in order not also to stop the incidents but to prevent future cases.
The most difficult part was at the beginning of this situation, when I understood what was going on and I was feeling unable to help the child and solve the problem.
End of the story. How did the story end up? What have you learned from this personal experience? What would you say to people who are living similar situations?
Fortunately, all parents willingly cooperated with us and week by week the situation got a lot better until everything went back to normal. All the kids were hanging together during the workouts, the matches and after, they were cooperating and they were also having fun.
After this experience, I strongly believe that discussing discrimination and facing such situations can be hard enough even for adults. Talking to kids about the subject can be especially challenging, however diversity and discrimination are subjects that shouldn’t be ignored. Parents but also coaches and teachers are playing a very important and critical role both in facing and preventing discrimination that is why they should often talk to kids about the evils of prejudice and discrimination and the value of diversity.
basketball players

teach respect against prejudices of racism

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details of interview

Role of the Interviewed: PE teacher

Age: 46

Gender: female

Nationality: Greek

Type of radicalization: ethnic discrimination

Historical period collocation: 2016

Date/Country of the Interview: 24/09/2018, Greece

Interviewer: Municipality of Evrotas

Municipality of Evrotas

Have you witnessed or experienced personal situations of radicalization during your activity in sport organizations? What kind of radicalizations have you detected? (Gender, politics, religion, racism, crime, homophobia…)

teacher

I am a physical education teacher and I have been working at the same school for the last 16 years. A lot of children with a migrant background have been enrolled in our school the last years and we had never experienced discrimination cases till 2 years ago. Before having this interview, I had never thought of the incident I am going to describe, that way, but now that we are talking I believe that it could be strongly related with radicalisation process.
Telling your story. What has happened? How has the story started?
The incident concerns a former student of mine and more specifically a young girl with migrant background, aged 13 years old. She was an excellent student, with consistency, always smiling, very kind and shy and a willing girl who was always trying to help her classmates and always cooperating with everyone.
Apparently, a lot of incidents had probably happened but she had never told anything to anyone, neither to her school teachers, nor to her parents. One day, it was too rainy to do outdoor sport activities so I decided to have a theoretical session with the students about sports played in ancient times. When we reached the classroom, I remembered that I had forgotten to bring the projector, so I kindly requested from the children to stay quiet in the classroom, until I come back with the projector and continue our theoretical session.
How did you realize what was going on? What kind of signals could you detect? How do you explain radicalization, referring to your experience?
When I was reaching the classroom, I heard through the half-opened door a group of kids screaming nicknames and a lot of unpleasant comments, all targeting the girl and especially her origin and her skin color. The girl was not talking and not responding back to any of the comments. I couldn’t stand anymore to hear these things, so I opened the door and entered the classroom, I looked the girl and she seemed quiet and a bit sad. I started talking about this with the kids and I asked them to explain to me the reason of all these comments and behavior. After that we had a long talk with the kids about values such as diversity, tolerance and respect.
Have you tried to cope with this situation? What was possible to do? What have you done? Have you involved other people/organizations? Who was involved?
It’s strange but somehow, I decided from that day and especially after this conversation, to watch this class and the behavior of this group of children towards the girl and see if the comments and the maltreatment will go on.
Unfortunately my fears came true. The situation kept going on, so I decided to do something about it.
I had a meeting with all the school teachers and the headmaster, where I described the incidents and I explained to them the situation and the isolation of the girl. We decided to work with the children with some classroom activities and interactive games focusing on exploring prejudices, stereotypes, racism, exclusion, equality and diversity with the aim to fight the phenomenon. Furthermore, the headmaster arranged a meeting with parents in order to provide information but also to offer advice on the topic. Unfortunately very few parents showed up and attended the meeting. In the meantime, during my lesson with this class, I formed an amateur basketball team including all the girls where I was coaching girls’ basketball. Since then and every time during my class, the girls were practicing basketball and playing mini tournaments.
Did you feel you had the skills to manage this kind of situations? Which was the most difficult part of it? Have you had any form of support?
Personally, I felt unskilled and unable to manage the situation. Despite the fact that during my studies I had also attended courses in pedagogy nothing had prepared me for dealing with such issues. Thankfully, I had the support both of the rest of the school teachers and of the school principal who payed attention to the case and were immediately engaged in facing the problem. Sadly, I did not have the support I expected from the parents. The most difficult parts were the indifference of the parents and the fact that I was witnessing the maltreatment of the girl and the change in her behavior, withdrawing into herself and isolated from the other students.
End of the story. How did the story end up? What have you learned from this personal experience? What would you say to people who are living similar situations?
The girl with the migrant background was proved to be a great and talented basketball player and this was something that the rest of her classmates noticed and started respecting and admiring. Gradually, things became normal over time and the girl had the best relationship with her classmates. This incident made me experience in practice that sport has the power to break down barriers and unite people.