Manchester event breaks down barriers

Professional footballers from Manchester’s two English Premiership clubs, Manchester United FC and Manchester City FC, will join personalities from television and the music industry in the city this weekend to support a national football festival which aims to break down prejudices towards asylum-seekers and refugees.

Unity Cup festival
The Unity Cup festival, which takes place in central Manchester this coming weekend, has been organised by the English anti-racism body 'Kick It Out' – a close partner of the pan-European network Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), which itself is working in close co-operation with UEFA in a concerted campaign to eliminate the evil of racism from football.

Largest sporting gathering
The festival will bring together the largest sporting gathering of refugees and asylum seekers in the United Kingdom for a weekend of sport, food and music. Teams are being invited from throughout the United Kingdom, and many of the players will be from areas of the country in which hostility and racism are a daily feature of their lives.

Asylum rights advice
Participants will be given advice on asylum rights, how to participate in mainstream footballing activities, and developing links with their local professional clubs and local county associations in the UK.

Act of solidarity
"The Unity Cup will bring together footballers in an act of solidarity through sport for what has rapidly become the most ostracised section of the population in Britain," said 'Kick It Out' director Piara Power.

Positive achievements
"The gathering of so many players who are refugees or asylum seekers, some of who will have been professionals in their country of origin, will illustrate the positive achievements of those seeking assistance in Britain, while offering an opportunity for exchanges of experiences, and engagement with footballing agencies."