Play Football Make Peace

Aqaba, May 1

The Way of True Champions, Aqaba Jordan

The Way of True Champions provides a forum for football coaches to come together and discuss the value of the sport.

There were twenty eight participants in The Way of True Champions Institute in Aqaba, Jordan. First, there were football coaches gathered from towns all over Jordan: Amman, Aqaba, Rusiefa, Ma’an, Tafilah, Irbid, Ramtha, Al-Sareeh, and Kufer Soom. There were eight coaches from the original group of coaches assembled for the programme in Amman during 2008. In this workshop they assisted Walid Abu Shanab the chief trainer, helping to facilitate the small groups and leading the group discussions about the principles and values.  The lead coaches were Ibraheem Sa’dieh, the first professional player for the Jordan national team, international FIFA referee Yousef Shaeen,  Jamal Albanna and Hasan Al Hakeem.

Other coaches attending for the first time included members of the Jordan Football Association’s Prince Ali Centres for Promising Youth (PACPY). There are a total of 72 coaches in towns throughout Jordan and The Way of True Champions is recognized by the PACPY director Mr. Ziad Akouba as the key programme to teach principles and values to Jordan’s youth footballers. The 2009 workshop is the next stage of expanding the programme to youth coaches throughout Jordan.

The workshop also had another key purpose. This was to launch Peace Dream Football’s Middle East Peace Programme. Peace Dream has a long term goal to build a football field for peace for Palestine and Israel. The starting point is to build a joint youth football training programme and then a joint football club in the Israeli and Palestine communities in the area of Nazareth and Jenin. Four Israelis and Palestinian coaches attended the Aqaba workshop to learn about The Way of True Champions principles and values.

These principles and values will be at the center of Peace Dream’s football and peace development in Palestine-Israel.

The atmosphere was very open and informal and provided a unique learning environment.
The workshop location overlooked the Red Sea, with views toward Egypt and Israel. There were excursions into Aqaba to work with local football youth players, and also on the second day of the workshop coaches played against Aqaba football coaches. These were both important opportunities to put into practice and teach through example the lessons learned in the group discussions. The local civic leaders were very impressed by the ideas and practice, and there is already a plan emerging to bring the Way of Champions back to Aqaba in cooperation with the regional Department of Social and Economic Development.

Another important change is the renaming of the progamme to add “True” as in the Way of True Champions. The significance is to clarify and emphasize the key purpose, which is to help youth be champions at life. It may mean being a champion at football, but it also means to be a champion in all that we do; in work, in play; in family and in community.  True is unwavering and straight and this is the kind of character that youth need to be successful in life, to be both excellent in their work and to build good relationships with others. It is at the very heart of building peace.

The workshop project manager was Mr Nadi Nabhan, assisted by Tariq Khan. They helped to create the good environment and managed the logistics. All the participants appreciated the attention to detail and the commitment with which they reflected the values of the Way of True Champions programme.