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Lebanon

Lebanon today presents a paradox. On the one hand, it boasts a vibrant multicultural society, an active private sector, and a liberal and democratic political system. On the other hand, in the last three decades, it has been plagued with civil wars, external wars, military occupations and acute political uncertainty. The country has also seen a rise in sectarian divisions and animosity which have manifested themselves in periodic street clashes in Beirut and around the country. These have as late as in 2008 brought Lebanon to the verge of renewed sectarian strife.
 
The problems of the country are apparent in all parts of the society; also the Lebanese Football Association and the professional football clubs are strongly politicized and divided between the different political, religious and ethnical groups. This division in Lebanese football has often caused tension and conflict in the stands during football matches, which has resulted in a total ban on spectator football. Due to these problems, football is seen as something that can further divide the country instead of bringing the different groups together. Neither the clubs nor the FA have been focusing on establishing and organizing grassroots football in the country in a large scale.
This has instead been done by CCPA Lebanon.
 
1. CCPA Lebanon began its activities in 2005, when 5 Open Fun Football Schools were conducted in different regions of Lebanon. Contrary to other countries, where CCPA has been active, very few spin-off activities came out of these Football Schools. This was because Lebanon didn’t have the same sports culture or club structure as was the case in the Balkans.
 
2. With the StreetSport-project, CCPA Lebanon then took an alternative approach to the promotion of peaceful co-existence through the concept of Fun Football. The project became a great success with thousands of children participating in StreetSport activities organized by 300 volunteering CCPA-coaches all over the country. In spite of the success, the project was not very sustainable, as the coaches after months of working by themselves became exhausted and many activities stopped. The coach was alone and didn’t have anybody to assist or motivate him.
3. CCPA Lebanon had to dig a bit deeper and establish regular clubs, where several coaches could team up and organize activities together and thus make activities sustainable. Many of the 300 StreetSport coaches were brought together in smaller teams and together with parents and municipalities, several Popular Clubs were established. This was the beginning of the Popular Club project, which has been developed in cooperation with the Rockwool Foundation with the purpose to support and promote the process of peaceful co-existence, tolerance-building and social cohesion in Lebanon based on civil society mobilisation and gender equality.  
 
4. During the three years of cooperation between Rockwool Foundation and CCPA Lebanon, the first task was to locate and gather possible volunteers to establish clubs and to introduce the idea of Popular Clubs in the country.
5. During the second phase, the network was expanded with new Popular Clubs and further developed.
 
6. Finally in the third phase, the important assignment is to bring the wide network of Popular Clubs together under an umbrella, a Popular Club Federation, while at the same time further expanding the number of clubs and sustaining the activities. Recurrent activities are very important, but the structure is essential to the project and not least to its sustainability. The Popular Clubs and a federation for these will create the required energy to the project and make it sustainable for the future.
7. The best way to reach the purpose and mission of CCPA Lebanon to support and promote the process of peaceful co-existence, tolerance-building and social cohesion between different population groups in Lebanon would be to establish multiethnic clubs all over the country. But due to the fact that the different population groups are living separated in the majority of the villages and towns in Lebanon, this is not possible – especially not without compromising the natural establishment, the sustainability and local anchoring of the clubs. 
 
8. Therefore, CCPA Lebanon will have to stress the importance of these different clubs to meet and play with each other as often as possible. The children, coaches, parents and others involved in the local Popular Clubs will get the chance to meet during seminars, Mini Tournaments and Open Fun Football Schools. To CCPA, children's football does much more than building relations among children, coaches and sports clubs. Children’s football constitutes an important platform in civil society, where people from different backgrounds can meet and bond while discussing: children – welfare – future and the development of children’s football.
9. Activities in and between the Popular Clubs work as a base for establishing cross cultural networks in the country. CCPA Lebanon will organize these activities around OFFS, which are also working as education for new coaches and as recruitment of children and coaches – and thus new Popular Clubs. The Popular Clubs will be established on the energy of seminars and OFFS. After the OFFS, which will take place in all regions of Lebanon, the coaches and the Popular Clubs will conduct monthly follow-up activities, e.g. Mini Tournaments and Fun Football Festivals. Following the OFFS, there will also be organized Popular Club Seminars for the new clubs. Later, when regular activities in the clubs are well under way, additional seminars (e.g. conflict management, fundraising, administration etc.) will be organized. During this process, 30 new Popular Clubs will be established, while CCPA Lebanon will continue to sustain and develop the 80 already established Popular Clubs. The total number of CCPA Popular Clubs will increase to 110.
 
10. In order to further educate the Popular Clubs, give them the opportunities to meet other people from other regions and to make the Popular Club project sustainable and well-structured, a federation should be established. Thanks to the Popular Club decree in Lebanon, CCPA has the chance to connect our activities to this decree. Together with the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Sports for All-committee in the Lebanese NOC, CCPA Lebanon has started policy work for such a new development in Lebanese sports culture. The first and very important step toward such a federation was taken during the Sports-for-All Conference in 2009. Following the conference, a recommendation was made from the Sport for All Committee for the MOYS to form a Popular Club Federation. The MOYS is currently preparing to issue the 10 year strategic plan that includes the establishing of the Popular Club Federation which is one of its main elements.  A Popular Club Federation would not only be representing the CCPA Popular Clubs, but should also include other popular clubs in the country, e.g. clubs which have been kicked out of other federations. This Popular Club Federation, which will be based on the principles of Sports-for-All, could in the future work for developing all popular clubs in Lebanon, and offer different programmes for children, youth, coaches and leaders. The idea is to establish the federation independently from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, but when the federation is well established, it should be included in the ministry as other federations in the country.
11. For the coming years, when the federation is structured and the Popular Club project has reached sustainability, a regular OFFS-programme will be developed in Lebanon. Earlier, the country and its sports structure were not prepared for this, but this has changed with the vast network of Popular Clubs. The OFFS and the seminars attached to the schools will be offered to children and coaches by the new federation together with additional seminars for Popular Club leaders. The Popular Club Federation will every year attract new clubs, and will be able to give a boost to Lebanese sports culture and civil society.