In June 2008 Spirit of Soccer, a streetfootballworld Network Member, held ten football skills camps in Moldova and the break away region of Transnistria. With the support of the UK Embassy in Moldova and the Laureus Foundation, Spirit of Soccer held the camps to coincide with the EURO 2008 Football Championship. The camps were targeted at youngsters from culturally diverse, poor and rural locations and were hosted by seven clubs in Moldova and three clubs in the Transnistria region.

The camps were run by a coaching team made up of male and female Moldovan and Transnistrian coaches who had taken part in the Spirit of Soccer ‘Ethnic Tolerance’ football coaching project held in February 2008. The coaching team travelled 3,600km, delivering ten football skills clinics to 1,082 Moldovan and Transnistrian boys and girls. After developing various football skills and taking part in mini-tournaments, the participants were presented with information about leading a healthy lifestyle, covering issues such as diet, smoking, alcohol consumption and drug abuse and were reminded of the central importance of tolerance on and off the pitch. The diverse coaching team encouraged youngsters to concentrate on common values rather than cultural or ethnic differences.

With FIFA’s support, Spirit of Soccer were able to send a team of two Moldovan and two Transnistrian female and male soccer skills camp participants to take part in the EUROSCHOOLS youth camp being held between the 14th and 21st of September in Austria and Switzerland (see announcement on streetfootballworld.org).

As well as building bridges between Moldova and Transnistria, the FIFA endorsed coach license training programme and the football skills camps have helped create positive female role models in the form of football coaches and empowered female participants. The team’s participation in the EUROSCHOOLS 2008 Youth Camp is a fitting end for the Spirit of Soccer’s work as it features both girls and boys from both Moldova and Transnistria coming together to fulfil the programme’s slogan “Together we make ONE team”.