UEFA Under-17 Championship finals: Reach Out campaign launched

National Team UEFA
by Antoine Busuttil

varist-bjornThe REACH OUT promotional campaign in view of the UEFA Under-17 Championship finals – Malta 2014 was launched on Wednesday during a press conference at the Centenary Hall, Ta’ Qali.

An important aspect in organising an event of this stature is to promote it, both locally and abroad. The association hopes to see thousands of football enthusiasts at the stadia which will host the tournament matches in May. Rather than incurring huge expenses to try and entice the public to buy tickets to watch these finals, the focus will be directed towards an open invitation to the various sectors of the local community.

For this reason, the Local Organising Committee is embarking on a widespread campaign called REACH OUT which will consist of a number of mini campaigns targeting the various sectors of society, which are intended at attracting a consistent turn-out for all the fifteen matches of the tournament.

Photo: Copyright © domenic aquilina

REACH OUT will carry the two themes adopted by the Local Organising Committee in promoting the tournament:

  • FROM GRASSROOTS TO ELITE – The theme will be specifically aimed at promoting the development of the local game and include campaigns targeting the younger generations, particularly those in schools and football nurseries.
  • FRIENDSHIP THROUGH FOOTBALL will be theme aimed at highlighting the power of football in bringing people together and thus create a friendly atmosphere amongst both locals coming from various sectors of society and visitors.

The Educational Aspect

The Malta Under-17 Finals will present the local community with a chance to host and get to know better the different cultures that hail from the countries here being represented by their sporting communities, whether they are young football players, team and association officials, accompanying fans or the media. Sponsors, students and school children can here play an important role in hosting and learning more about our guests.

The EDUCATION ZONE in particular, is a campaign which is aimed at giving the opportunity to students and school children to enrich their socio, cultural and educational skills and knowledge by participating in initiatives which are being organised by the Local Organising Committee, of the event.

This campaign is being supported by the Ministry of Education and Employment and the Valletta 2018 Foundation.

The other REACH OUT mini-campaigns are:

  • NURSERIES ZONE – Targeting youths and children in local football nurseries
  • ONE-TIME ZONE – An invitation to members of youth centres, band clubs youth sections, sports organisations, and NGO’s, who may not usually follow football as a sport, but who could be driven by the interest of meeting others, making new friends and getting the feel of the stadium experience.
  • FOOTBALL WITHOUT FRONTIERS – An invitation extended to residents in open centres, as part of our corporate social responsibility of giving these people the opportunity to enjoy the feeling of friendship through sport.
  • FOOTBALL FOR ALL – As another fulfilment of our corporate social responsibility and the fact that the final match coincides with UEFA’s Grassroots Week, we chose to include members from the Special Olympics team.
  • EDUCATION ZONE – As stated above, this campaign will give the opportunity to students and school children to enrich their socio, cultural and educational skills and knowledge by participating in initiatives which are being organised for State, Church & Private Schools. Education Zone will also be extended to students from the University of Malta, the Junior College and MCAST who may fancy organising groups to attend to any of the tournament matches.
  • CLUB ZONE – Members of Local Football Clubs will also be offered the chance to follow and support our youngsters and enjoy the thrills that international youth football offers.
  • MEDIA ZONE – Media houses will be invited to become partners in promoting this high- profile event.
  • OTHER – Local Councils, hotels, supermarkets, and volunteers from other entities will also be invited to join our promotion campaign.

Initiatives for schools

School administrators are invited to organise classes for an excursion, offering the opportunity to school children to enjoy The Stadium Experience, and attend to a match featuring either their fellow citizen youth players or indeed players from the representative teams coming from the top European Nations in Youth Football, in action at such an important sporting event.

All State, Church and Independent Schools are being urged to participate in this initiative. The targeted age groups are as follows:

Primary – Boys & Girls – Years 4, 5 and 6
Seondary – Boys & Girls – Forms 1, 2, 3 and 4

There will be no capping on the number of students/school children that can attend from each school.

All participating schools will be offered FREE Transport Services to take the participants from the school to the stadium, and back.

Each of the best three represented schools on the basis of the school’s population percentage, will be presented with a voucher with which they can acquire books for their school library or sports equipment.

All participating individuals, whether being school children, teachers and / or school administrators, will each get a complimentary ticket to enter the stadium to watch the match.

All participating individuals, will each get a competition-branded token when they enter the stadium.

All ticket stubs (bearing the holders’ details), retained by the Stadium Gate Stewards will be eligible to participate in a lottery with all prizes being related to top level experiences that the local game of football can offer.

Meanwhile school administrators are invited to encourage children from their respective schools to participate in project work related to these aspects that the Malta 2014 Finals will offer.

The project works can be either an individual or a group effort, as long as a participating school produces enough material to embellish a small to medium sized exhibition stand, if the particular school is chosen as best from its category.

The end product can be any from the below;

  • Essay Writing
  • A Project Book
  • Drawing (size A4 to A3)
  • Painting or collage (size A3 to A2)
  • Photography (single or mini collection of photos – max 10 photos)
  • Power Point Presentation (Max 20 Slides)
  • Scale Model (maximum footprint area 50cm x 35 cm)

The topic of the project work for each participating school will be allocated by the Local Organising Committee according to the interest of participation received from the schools themselves. The topics could be one of the following:

  • Social and Cultural characteristics of a country from amongst those who can possibly qualify for the Malta 2014 Finals, including Malta
  • RESPECT in Sport with particular reference to football
  • FAIR PLAY and ANTI RACISM in sport with particular reference to football
  • VALLETTA – European Capital City of Culture 2018

The judges will decide on the winning project work from one school from each of the 11 Sectors, which school will then be allocated a stand space to exhibit the works done by its students in the central exhibition, which will be put up for the duration of the tournament. The judging of the works produced by the schools will be carried out during visits to the participating schools by the Tournament Ambassadors.

All participating schools will be presented with a Voucher with which they can acquire books for their school library or sports equipment. The schools presenting the winning project from each of the eleven sectors, will be presented with an additional voucher with which they can acquire books for their school library or sports equipment.

The best three judged individual or group efforts will in the order of merit, be presented with vouchers with which they can acquire books or sports equipment.