Football
Nine years ago, in early 2000, I was standing on the sidelines of a football match being played between two teams of local kids in Baidoa, Somalia. Next to me, stood a boy – no older than nine – who was holding a machine gun.
I asked him to explain the game and he told me that the teams were from two opposing sides. He explained to me that football was the one thing in his war-torn country that could overcome conflict and bring people together.
That really got me thinking. A few months later, I was travelling in the Middle East and I heard further tales of two opposite sides coming together in peace on the football pitch. I realised then that football was the perfect game to play on Peace Day, in a gesture reminiscent of the Christmas truce during World War I when soldiers from both the German and English sides came out of their trenches to play a game of football.
So I came up with the concept of One Day, One Goal, which I took to Jochen Zeitz, the CEO of PUMA. He loved the idea and came on board and, with the support of PUMA, the past two Peace Days have seen games played between people from all different age groups, cultures, communities and belief-systems all over the world. Last year, in the City of Khanaqin in Iraq, the Iraqi army and the Kurdish Pashmerga put down their guns and played in the name of peace. A team from Tijuana, Mexico crossed the border to play against a team of schoolchildren in Chula Vista, California. This year, we hope to see a record number of games played.
Register here and play a game for Peace Day. Quite apart from anything else, it will be fun!
In Peace,
Jeremy
