The Department for Interethnic Relations will organize in partnership with the Romanian Football Federation (FRF) at the end of the week several cultural and sports events aimed at promoting cultural and ethnic pluralism.
The Diversity Cup will start on Friday, October 21, with the opening of photography and visual art exhibitions at the House of Football, the headquarters of the Romanian Football Federation. Also on Friday, the draw for the football championship of minorities will take place.
The competition for which 11 teams lined up starts Saturday, October 22, 10:00 a.m., at the National Football Center in Buftea. The day will close at the House of Football with a debate on preventing and eliminating racism in sports and on ways to promote the sharing of best practices in fighting discrimination. The finals of the football championship are scheduled for Sunday, October 23, starting 1:00 p.m.
Public authorities and nongovernmental organizations are equally responsible for preventing racism in sports. Several events dedicated to fighting racism and discrimination take place every year in Europe. The Romanian football has always been a platform for tolerance and multiculturalism, an expression of acceptance and openness.
"Sports, football in particular, help a lot in the integration of an individual with a group, with the community. The Romanian Football Federation is partner in many projects focusing on education through sports, through football. I wish good luck to all the participants in the football competition and may the best win!”, says former international football player Miodrag Belodedici, one of the project’s supporters.
The Diversity Cup is included by UEFA in the Captains of Change program, which promotes diversity and innovative projects seeking to extend football to the largest possible number of players who would not be normally enrolled in regular competitions. The leader of the program in Romania is Florin Sari, FRF’s Social Responsibility and Good Governance Manager, who believes that, "by joining the Captains of Change program, the Romanian Football Federation has access to a valuable resource of knowledge and to football growth and innovation experiences, and we are confident that we will improve our ability to develop competition formats that contribute to the achievement of the strategic goal of increasing the visibility and attractiveness of football in our country. With support from UEFA, we assure the sustainability of the Diversity Cup, in which teams of ethnic minorities organizations in Romania take part and which celebrates through football the diversity of the most important resource of our society: the people."
This year, the Captains of Change program promotes projects from Romania, Italy and Scotland, as well as UEFA projects.
