UEFA partner keeps football fun for Georgian kids

UEFA president Michel Platini saw UEFA's social responsibility strategy put into practice when he visited a summer football camp in Georgia organised by one of the European governing body's long-standing core partners.

Mr Platini used the occasion of his two-day visit to the Caucasus country earlier this week to make an appearance at one of the Open Fun Football Schools (OFFS) being run in the Georgian capital Tbilisi this summer. During Tuesday's visit, he learned more about the OFFS programme which is run by UEFA social responsibility portfolio member, the Cross Cultures Project Association (CCPA).

A display set up by the Georgian office of the CCPA provided an introduction to the history, ideas and principles behind the OFFS, while CCPA staff welcomed the UEFA president to the practical side of the initiative as he took part in games with children and instructors. The CCPA organises Open Fun Football Schools in the Balkan and Transcaucasian regions of Europe and in the Middle East, using its fun football concept to encourage friendship and social cohesion among children aged between seven and eleven, and of different ethnic and social backgrounds.

The school which Mr Platini visited had about 200 boys and girls from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and was being held at a stadium in Tbilisi. The UEFA president was in the southeastern European nation on Monday and Tuesday for meetings with Georgian Football Federation (GFF) officials and leading politicians including Georgia's prime minister Nika Gilauri.