Speeches

Tony Blair and Beyond Sport working to show how sport can replace enmity with friendship

We've all heard the story of the 1914 "Christmas Truce", when the humanity of a simple game of football between British and German soldiers replaced the horrors of the First World War trenches. I think the reason we remember this story is because it tells us so much about the spirit of Christmas and about the power of sport.

My views on the value of sport as a means of bringing communities together and conflict to a close are no secret. They have been reinforced in my role as Chairman of the Ambassadors of Beyond Sport. Beyond Sport finds and funds projects that use sport to reach out to the children of conflicts and begin the healing process.

The same power of sport we learnt about on the battlefields of France 95 years ago is visible in many conflict zones today. On the Ethiopia-Kenya border, children who were once used in tribal conflict against each other today play football with one another. Together they develop football skills and learn about teamwork. Instead of becoming lifelong enemies, they have the chance to become team-mates.

One project is also bringing Israeli and Palestinian children together through, of all things, basketball. A sport that millions take for granted in Britain and America - and one that President Obama plays to relax - is promoting understanding, developing leadership skills and transforming everything that these young Israelis and Palestinians thought about each other: from conflict to confidence; from the hostilities of the past towards friendships for the future. Work such as this goes largely unreported but 5,500 young people have passed through the basketball project, gaining a chance for understanding that they otherwise wouldn't have had. These projects are not a complete solution to the conflicts that overshadow them. But they start to draw children's attention away from their differences and towards their similarities, to dismantle generations of hatred and to re-shape their futures.

For me, the lessons here are pretty clear. As we think about how to begin to tackle regional and ethnic conflicts that with the passage of time seem only to become more deep-rooted and more insuperable, and how to stop future generations from being sucked into a spiralling conflict tragedy, sport has a role to play.

I am not suggesting that sport alone can bring this about. Of course not. Patient diplomacy, careful negotiation and detailed policy must move leaders together. Their leadership can be underpinned and encouraged if neighbouring peoples interact positively at a day-to-day, grassroots level. Then the desire for change has the chance to take root. Hope has a chance to thrive.

So, action at the human level becomes every bit as vital and valuable as at the governmental one. In places marked by conflict, sport can help to replace enmity, ignorance and mistrust with friendship and acceptance. That's what we mean by going "Beyond Sport".

Tony Blair is founder of the Tony Blair Sports Foundation and Chairman of the Ambassadors of Beyond Sport. This article first appeared in The Times.