From May 20th to 24th, 2009, teams of young street footballers from across Europe will come together in Foča, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to celebrate the contribution of football to social development and vie for the crown in a Fair Play Football tournament.

Organised by streetfootballworld and its network member Football Friends, the second European Street Football Festival will host 24 teams of four girls and four boys aged 14-18 in a week of workshops and Fair Play Football (read more about the delegations participating). Twelve delegations will come from across the Balkan states and twelve from the rest of Europe.

Foča 09 will kick off with activities designed to encourage intercultural understanding, dialogue and friendship, and will culminate in two days of fast-paced street football in the heart of Foča.

The European Commission – Directorate General for Enlargement is the festival’s main funding partner.

History of the event

Before the Bosnian War (1992-1995), Foča hosted an annual youth football tournament that brought together the most successful clubs from across Yugoslavia. With the outbreak of conflict and the resulting disintegration of relations between the Balkans’s myriad communities, the tournament was disbanded. Ten years after the end of the war, the tournament was revived by streetfootballworld network member Football Friends. Foča 08, the first European Street Football Festival, was organised in 2008 to provide a special international and grassroots element to this passionate football region. This year the European Street Football Festival returns to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Stay tuned to www.streetfootballworld.org for more information on Foča 09!