AEK Athens participates in the 3rd session of ‘Welcome Through Football’ program

AEK Athens participates in the 3rd session of ‘Welcome Through Football’ program

The third phase of the European social program “Welcome Through Football”, in which AEK PAE participates, in cooperation with other European Clubs, was successfully completed.

The children who took part in the third phase of the program had the opportunity to be guided by Ilias Kyriakidis in Serafideion and to meet the sports journalist Maria Zafeiratou, who spoke to the children about sports journalism and answered all their questions. The participants of the program attended the first training session of the K19 team and at the end of the training session the K19 coach Genaios Karahalios talked to the kids and explained to them what the duties of a coach are.

On the last day of the third phase of the program, a pool party was organized at the facilities of AO Foivos Aiolos Academy , which is a partne: Academy of the team’s Network. In addition, throughout the program there was no lack of trainings and football matches.

The fourth phase of “Welcome Through Football”, which aims to help immigrants to better adapt to the host countries through football, will start in the autumn, always in collaboration with Athens Comics Library.

‘Welcome Through Football’ project

Welcome Through Football is a project initiated by EFDN where current projects across Europe receive funding from the Eramus+ program of the European Union and the UEFA Foundation for Children. The project assists football coaches and youth workers in the development and sharing of effective methods in reaching out to the marginalised target group, in preventing racism and intolerance.

The Welcome Through Football 2021 project aims to assist in the integration and inclusion of recently arrived young refugees, asylum seekers and young people with a migrant background. EFDN and partners will develop and test a European methodology that uses football as a tool to reach refugees and migrants from different ages (7-25 years old) to get them physically and social active in European communities.