June 5 – While preparations for the high-profile main event move into their final few days, football with a more grassroots appeal is playing a key role on the sidelines of the World Cup.
Marta Vieira da Silva, the world’s most renowned female footballer, highlighted the positive effects of football in youth development programmes around the world when she opened an exhibition on the social dimension of the game in Brazil at Rio’s Museum of the Republic.
The social power of football will be the central theme of a series of live events during the World Cup with visitors discovering the social side of the game and its ability to transcend barriers of class, gender, ethnicity and more.
The events and exhibition are hosted by streetfootballworld which has teamed up with REDEH, a Brazilian NGO that promotes human development and equality.
The multimedia exhibition ‘Women on the Pitch’ tells the story of women’s football in Brazil, a 100-year-long struggle for acceptance and respect. The personal stories of female footballers and their teams in Brazil will give insight into how the most popular sport in the world can serve as a catalyst for emancipation and participation.
“It’s important to remember the history of women in football to acknowledge the ongoing challenges women still face in sport today,” said Marta, who is the official patron of streetfootballworld and Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “Combining this cause with the social side of football is perfect, because we can show the public that it is possible to transform lives through our great national passion. This is a huge step towards a real social legacy that we all envision for sports mega events in Brazil,”
Streetfootballworld is the world’s leading network in the field of social change through football, uniting close to 100 organisations from over 60 countries. More than 120,000 people are expected to visit the exhibition during the World Cup. “Our main goal is to offer the visitors a new way of looking at football, something that goes beyond the game itself. We will provide a platform to discuss football’s power to overcome gender, race and social status and initiate a debate about the fundamental human right to practise the sport,” said Mirella Domenich, General Manager of streetfootballworld Brasil.
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