Girls Football Festival brings friendship and opportunity to Montenegro

Founded in Vienna, the festival took place in the Austrian capital for six years before moving to Sarajevo in 2025. This year, it is continuing its mission of using football to promote friendship, inclusion and personal development, this time among young female players from Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The initiative provides a platform for girls to develop their skills, meet peers from other countries and build new friendships in a welcoming, non-competitive environment.

Alongside training sessions, participants also take part in workshops and activities designed to strengthen communication skills, self-confidence and teamwork.

Supported by the UEFA HatTrick programme through the Football Association of Montenegro, the festival demonstrates how investment in grassroots football can contribute to the development of the women's game while promoting wider social values and stronger connections between communities.

A festival, not a tournament

Across three days in the foothills of Durmitor, carefully designed football sessions were combined with educational workshops, team-building activities and plenty of laughter.

Players were deliberately placed in mixed teams, encouraging them to interact with girls they had never met before.

For David Hudelist of the Vienna Institute for International Dialogue and Cooperation, one of the founders of the festival, that idea has never changed.

"We call it a festival for a reason, not a tournament," he explained. "Football should first be about joy. Of course, we teach technique and develop football skills, but the most important thing is that the girls get to know each other, make friends and realise that borders don't exist."

Hudelist has witnessed the transformation dozens of times over nearly a decade.

"When the girls arrive, they're shy. They stay close to the team-mates they already know," he said, "but when they leave, they hug each other, they cry, and they're already exchanging Instagram and TikTok accounts. Those friendships continue long after the festival ends."

Selma Memović/Igrajmo Zajedno Inicijativa

Role models on the pitch

Among the coaches at the festival was Montenegro international Jovana Sarić, who led sessions for girls experiencing the event for the first time.

"For me, this is a beautiful experience," she said. "The most important thing is that the girls enjoy, learn something new and create friendships. That's what football should be."

Sarić knows how different today's opportunities are from those she experienced during her own childhood.

"When I started playing, festivals like this didn't exist," she said. "Today, girls receive much more attention, they have more qualified coaches and many more opportunities to develop – not only as footballers, but as people. I hope they no longer have to hear that football is only for boys, because it belongs to girls just as much."

Her words reflect a wider movement across the region, where growing participation and stronger grassroots structures are opening the game to a new generation of players.

But while many of the girls dream of becoming professional players, the organisers believe the festival's greatest success cannot be measured in future careers.

"Everybody wants to become a professional player at the beginning," said Hudelist. "Very few actually do. But what every person remembers from football are the people they met, the coaches, the friendships and the moments they shared. That's the real legacy of the game."

Selma Memović/Igrajmo Zajedno Inicijativa

The festival is organised through a collaboration between the Football Association of Montenegro and partner organisations from Austria and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with funding from the UEFA HatTrick programme.

For Nikola Prentić, grassroots manager at the Football Association of Montenegro, hosting the event represented an important milestone.

"After several years of helping to organise this project, Montenegro had the opportunity to host for the first time," says Prentić.

"From the beginning, the objective has been clear: to promote girls' football while using sport as a tool for social responsibility, inclusion and bringing young people together. But without UEFA's strong support and understanding, this initiative would not have been possible."

The Girls Football Festival reflects the work being celebrated during UEFA Grassroots Week, which highlights the people and projects creating more opportunities for people across Europe to enjoy the game.