Dialect 2 News

As part of the Dialect2-Combating youth radicalization: Building communities of tolerance combining football with media and digital literacy program, on the 18th May, Oltalom Sport Association organized the celebration event with plenty of celebration in it. The event took place on a Saturday afternoon, following the regular football training of the organization, since in that time and location, we could engage more participants.Athletes from all age groups were invited to take part in the event.

Since Oltalom has been using the methodology of football3 for more than a decade, and as part of football3, we encourage our players to celebrate not only their own, but also their peers and opponents achievements. During matches, athletes are fostered to celebrate the goal of the opponent teams as well. We believe that this is a gesture that doesn’t always come naturally, and in the heat of a game, sometimes saluting our own performance is also forgotten. Therefore we decided to do a penalty shootout contest, where your goal only counts if you make a proper goal celebration. Just like in football3, not only your ability to win a match, or in this case, to shoot a penalty, was important, but also to show a bit of an extra effort to show that you try to come out of your comfort zone and exhibit your creativity.  

Participating athletes were divided into two groups based on their age and in some cases, based on their abilities. As some of the players didn’t want to participate as shooters, they were invited to act as an independent jury who delivers scores based on the performance of the celebration. 

As the project was also about media literacy, the kids recorded the celebrations, edited together in a video, which was shared amongst others with athletes, friends and supporters of the organization. Then everyone could vote for their favorite.Beside the jury on the spot, extra points could be gained from an online audience. There was football, celebration and video making at the same time. 

Upon the penalty shootout, the whole event was completed with a fun football match for the best penalty scorers. The venue of the celebration event was the Városligeti Miniaréna, one of Budapest’s central parks, thus several passers-by joined the event. We believe that the program provided a fun afternoon for participants who could feel safe enough to show attempts to open their creativity.