Manager for the Department: Theodorakis Yiannis, Professor, Filippou Nadia, Lab teaching staff
The project was based on an initiative of the Danish Refugee Council in Greece (DRC Greece)
Funded: By the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund of the European Union.
Implemented for three months, twice a week by the Department of Physical Education and Sport Science of the University of Thessaly from members of the Laboratory of Exercise Psychology and Quality of Life
With the support of e-trikala
info: https://foundation.fcbarcelona.com/futbolnet

The FutbolNet program methodology uses physical activity and sport as an agent of change for children and young people in vulnerable environments. FutbolNet promotes the values of FC Barcelona -effort, respect, teamwork, humility, and ambition- as construed from the culture of cooperation, where the values benefit the individual and the community as a whole, providing important new experiences in social interaction.

The program methodology is described below, making reference to the 3-part methodology, cooperation in order to promote the values, the involvement of everyone through the games and the role of teachers as educational models.

In all sessions of the program, the children and young people participate in the 3-part FutbolNet match, which has three basic rules: there is no referee, which encourages autonomy in the resolving of disputes by the children and young people; the teams must be heterogeneous in terms of gender, disability, soccer skills, place of origin, among other things; and finally, everyone must be encouraged to participate.

The Department with the instructors and the volunteer students of the department spent three months playing games and football 2 times a week with a group of boys and girls, Greek and refugee students from the city of Trikala. The aim of the program was not to learn football skills, but through football and cooperative play to teach children the basic principles of sports such as respect, cooperation, effort, and teamwork with the ultimate goal of the integration of children in society. What we worked on the most was "respect". "Respect for my teammates", "respect for my family", "respect for the rules of the game" "respect for everyone". Teamwork and collaboration were also worked on. "If we work together, we can all achieve more." In Barcelona's FutbolNet program, children changed the rules and set their own. Rules that always favored those who needed it most and did not participate so actively in the game. The educators were always vigilant to highlight these children. After all, the message of the program is "No child offside". There were no referees in the match and the children were responsible for following the rules they set before the start. The score was also different. The winner was not always the team with the most goals, but the team that had tried the most, that had followed the rules and played a fair game.