Clean football getting ready for the Mini

On Friday at 18.00, the pilot project in the Miniestadi involved about fifty beneficiaries of the XICS centres in Carmel and Santa Coloma de Gramenet. The plan was to put to the test a methodology that has already proven successful in Colombia and Germany and that the Foundation is implementing in Catalonia for the first time. “This football takes advantage of the fact that football attracts children and can transmit values. The idea is for these values to be applied off the field of play”, said Jairo Aguilar, who has monitored this methodology in Colombia.

The most goals don’t always win

The youngsters are divided into four teams, two from each centre, and play a four-way round robin. As in the methodology of 3-a-side football, before each game starts, the members of each team meet to decide on the rules for the game. And after the game, they meet again to evaluate their behaviour, along with a ‘facilitator’, who helps them reach agreements and decide on the winner. The aim is to appraise decent behaviour, fair play and justice, because in 3-a-side football it not always the team that scores the most goals that wins.