As part of FIRE pilot interventions, the first edition of the Inter Meet Up Cup took place in the city of Hasselt in Belgium on October 12th, 2019. The Inter Meet Up Cup was organised as a one-day 5vs5 football tournament.
The aims of this friendly football competition were in line with the FIRE project objectives:
- to improve social cooperation between players of different nationalities, but also refugees and host communities
- to help players with a refugee background to learn the basic of Belgian football
- to support players with a refugee background to learn Dutch football vocabulary
A total number of 60 participants, including 50 refugees, attended this one-day event. The four teams that took part in the tournament came from four different asylum-centres for refugees.
The Inter Meet Up Cup was a successful event. It allowed the integration and social inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers, as the participants were both coming from asylum-centres and the local community. Some participants highlighted that thanks to this tournament, they found a refugee-friendly grassroot football club where they can now go to play football regularly.
As expected by the FIRE project, the tournament favoured a close cooperation with asylum-seeker centres to involve refugees and facilitate their social inclusion through sport, helping the partner build their overall methodological approach.