‘Football United for Peace’ at the UEFA Super Cup
The UEFA Super Cup match between FC Barcelona and Sevilla FC, which took place in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday 11 August 2015, featured a historic moment in the world of football. For the first time, the opening ceremony included a human chain: a symbolic act involving the players, the referee team and 1,000 disadvantaged children and accompanying adults from Georgia and eight neighbouring countries. The aim of this shared initiative by the Georgian Football Federation (GFF) and the UEFA Foundation for Children was to spread a powerful message: ‘Football United for Peace’.
Tbilisi is the easternmost European city to host the UEFA Super Cup since 2012, when the match left Monaco, where it had been played since 1998. Other cities can now host this encounter between the previous season’s winners of the two major European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The GFF, with the support of the UEFA Foundation for Children, decided to seize this opportunity to send a strong message by giving the spotlight to children from conflict zones in Europe, conveying the idea of peace and unity, and showing how football can bring people together. The national football associations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine all responded positively to this initiative.
