Sports and Peace? Reflections on the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace

Sport related organizations around the world often host events to mark the UN designated International Day of Sport for Development & Peace each year on April 6^th. The Korean Sharing Movement is no different usually marking the day each year during our spring Football 4 Peace programme.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year’s April 6^th activities have been restricted to the internet with SNS campaigns and some webinar discussions taking place as people are prevented from gathering in groups. KSM’s Football 4 Peace project also participated in one such webinar which was organized by UNESCO Youth Taskforce member and Kafka social welfare organization founder Umair Assif from Pakistan. Along with Umair and KSM were another eight speakers who all were either scholars of, or worked for organizations engaging in, the Sport for Peace and Development field. The webinar included participants with diverse nationalities and countries of residence scattered across South America, Africa, Europe, Oceania and Asia.



With the pandemic dominating everyday life of late it was no surprise that the opening and central question of the webinar asked what role sport has in this current situation. Participating in this webinar provided Football 4 Peace Korea with an opportunity to organize our thoughts once again concerning the role of sport in peacebuilding. Does sport have a role in developing peace? If it does, what is that role? Once (if) that role is identified how can its impact be maximized? And once all of those have been answered, how can society be persuaded about the necessity of that role? Participating in the webinar has not allowed us to suddenly be able to answer these questions. We remain in an ongoing discussion about these points both within KSM and with our colleagues around the world.

The webinar kicked off at 7pm Korean time and was broadcast on Facebook live. 7pm in Korea equated to 8pm in Australia and 5am at the other end of the time-zone spectrum in Ecuador where the ‘earliest’ participant was based. A lot of varied points came up in the discussion. The first speaker heralded the positive mental and physical health impacts of participating in sport, even if that does have to be undertaken alone, when participating in social distancing policies around the world. Although teams cannot meet together in the current situation a leader of sports projects for women explained that her projects were emphasizing the need to maintain contact between team members to provide a support network to one another. Highlighting increased concern about the gendered impact of COVID-19 it was discussed how during lockdowns women are more likely to suffer domestic violence, sexual abuse and have less access to contraception and health services. Following on from this two participants from developing countries emphasized the inadequate condition of healthcare provision in their countries as well as poor cramped living conditions which make social distancing much more difficult to implement. These two participants questioned whether sport had any role to play in their countries during this crisis.

Football 4 Peace Korea started out by stating the sport doesn’t have to have a role in this corona situation and that it is fine for it not to have one. Sport’s strength becomes apparent when it brings a diverse group of people together and under controlled and modified settings provides participants with the opportunity to experience cooperation and managed conflict. Sport can also provide moments where cooperation transcends into something inspirational where teammates seem to move as one and demonstrate creativity. This creativity can mirror that what is required to overcome the contradictions present in protracted social conflict. Music, art, theatre, dance can all play a similar kind of role. However, in the case of sport, for it to transcend exercise and contribute to developing relationships and peacebuilding, a number of certain preconditions need to be fulfilled. During the situation created by the current we stated that it just is not possible.

One major hurdle in the advancement of the sport for peace field is the sometimes proffered extravagant testimonies about how sport can cure all of the world’s ills. “Sport is apolitical. It is peaceful in nature and it carries a common universal meaning around the globe.” This kind of oversimplified at best downright inaccurate at worst message is actually advocated by some organizations and sympathetic media around the world and repeated in the public sphere. It means that the appropriate socially positive role that sport can play in society and conflict becomes overlooked or ignored amongst the brouhaha.

Whether it is sports or music or art or whatever else, one cultural area does not need to dominate the whole social contribution of culture field. Depending on the context, situation, and target the cultural tool chosen can and will change. During the current corona pandemic it seems that music has provided some hope for many people. At the beginning of the outbreak in Europe there were stories of group sing-a-longs from balconies in Italy and then in France there was the orchestra that performed separately before being combined on a computer and shared with the world via the internet. These activities provided some respite for people during troubling times. Football 4 Peace Korea concluded their comments by saying that for practitioners utilizing sport, rather than advocating sport as the answer in any and every situation it would be much better to analyse what role sport might be able to play depending on the circumstances and local context and then apply that role within its limits. The webinar continued with more debate about what values are inherent in sport and what body can provide leadership for the field in the vacuum that exists since the UN disbanded their office on Sport for development and peace in 2017.

This webinar allowed Football 4 Peace Korea to think deeply again about how we use sport for peace education here in South Korea and what role sport might play in the inter-Korean conflict.

Another point that came out during the webinar was the notion that the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and the unified Korean team had brought peace to the Korean peninsula. It is difficult to find much sympathy with this statement. Within a year of the PyeongChang Olympics the “peace process” had unraveled and the same impasse that remains today had taken hold. Furthermore polling at the beginning of the Olympics showed that around 80% of 19~39 year old South Koreans opposed the formation of the unified ice hockey team. Following on from this, in October last year the World Cup Qualifier football match between South and North Korea in Pyongyang was compared to a war so violent was the match and the level of hostility before and after. One Korean sports reporter talking about inter-Korean sports and diplomacy quoted by the BBC stated “By now, most South Koreans realise that these things have more or less become PR stunts by politicians rather than sports acting as a bridge between the two countries”.

For much of South Korean civil society little credence is given to the potential role of sports in the Korean peace process or within South Korea. This comes as no surprise, however, as Korean sport has been dogged by quite a few issues in recent years, including mistreatment and physical/sexual abuse of athletes by coaches. On top of this issue of safety, there are few opportunities for young Koreans to play non-competitive sports in general. International sports competitions have drawn criticism from corners of Korean society for causing environmental degradation and requiring very large budget allocations. The unified team at the PyeongChang Olympics was unpopular for many young South Koreans as it was seen as depriving dedicated, local athletes from the opportunity to represent their country. Due to these numerous issues, the role of sport is viewed with much doubt by sections of Korean society.

As emphasized above, Football 4 Peace Korea do not think that sport can solve all problems. Sports cannot usher in peace singlehandedly and sport has the potential to exacerbate conflict. Despite this we do believe that sport can play an important role in the journey that is peacebuilding.

As mentioned in the webinar, sport can provide opportunities to practice overcoming conflict through cooperation. This is broadly based on Gordon Allport’s contact theory. When two groups meet the opportunity to break down prejudices arises. When a divide is crossed relationships can be transformed which can lead to an increase in mutual understanding and empathy. For this to be possible several conditions must be met. Each group should have equal opportunity to participate, and there should be a common goal that participants are working towards. There must be mutual interaction and there should be institutional support.

The Korean Sharing Movement will continue to utilise sport for peace education in our Football 4 Peace programme. In Football 4 Peace sport itself is not the objective but a tool for education. Football 4 Peace changes the rules and the way the game is played while emphasizing five peace related values. These are respect, equity, inclusion, responsibility, and trust. These five values as well as the concept of peace itself do not have some objective meaning but rather the participants are provided the agency to ascribe meaning as they develop their own concept. Football 4 Peace facilitators do not teach about the values or lecture on the points of dispute that arise during the programme but rather discuss them with the children and let them draw their own conclusions. Football 4 Peace has certain factors which make it appealing to be used in peace education.

- Sports may be more interesting than textbooks for young people.

- Easy way to engage those without experience of peace education.

- Learning occurs when we are not necessarily anticipating it. We can emphasize that we learn outside of the classroom and are learning all the time.

- The method of implementation is more important than the contents. Participatory, reflective, discussion based.

Relationships are both the cause of conflict and also its long term solution. If competitiveness is lowered, a common goal is created, and sport is implemented in a revised and careful manner then it can bring people together, provide creativity to overcome contradictions to improve relationships and in so doing become one piece within a larger puzzle of peacebuilding.