Press release

Un Ponte Per and C.S. Lebowski bring popular football to the Shatila camp (Lebanon)
An Italian delegation composed of activists from the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per and athletic trainers from the Florentine sports club, to meet the Palestinian Youth Club in the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila

Rome, 12 May 2023 - On 13 May, the delegation of the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per and the Centro Storico Lebowski sports club from Florence will leave for Beirut, Lebanon, and specifically for the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila, where it will remain for a week.

The aim of the mission is to bring together the very special experience of the C. S. Lebowski - the first football club with a popular shareholding system - and the Palestinian Youth Club, a counterpart team born in the Shatila camp and entirely composed of Palestinian footballers.

The delegation will include activists from the Italian NGO Un Ponte Per, athletic trainers from C.S. Lebowski and the Tuscan director Niccolò Falsetti, candidate for the David di Donatello 2023 for the film 'Margini'.

The delegation's programme includes a cycle of daily training sessions with girls and children, adolescents and young people, with a special focus on girls and the role that sport can play in their path to emancipation and self-determination. At the end of the week, a tournament will be organised involving teams from other refugee camps in Beirut. Meetings are also planned with young female students from UNWRA schools in the Shatila camp, with the aim of involving them in sports activities.

The players will be coached by two Florentine athletic trainers, with the aim of sending a message of transversality and fairness in the sports field, and to bring the extraordinary experience of an atypical sports community such as the one embodied by C.S. Lebowsi to a marginalised place like Shatila.

The Centro Storico Lebowski has made headlines for its now international fan base, and for its rootedness in the Florentine territory and in particular in the working-class neighbourhood of San Frediano, in Florence. Here is its history: www.cslebowski.it.

Un Ponte Per has been present in the Shatila camp for 30 years, with solidarity projects and distance support to accompany the study path of boys and girls. Among the activities it supports inside the camp is the "Basketball Beats Borders" project, which has seen the birth and development of a men's and a women's basketball team inside Shatila, now famous far beyond the camp's borders.