South Sudanese refugee Margaret Monday Dominic, 15, keeps goal for her football team in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. © UNHCR/Hannah Maule-ffinch
For the next four football seasons, FC Barcelona and its Foundation will support programmes for displaced children and those who host them
Geneva – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, along with its National Association in Spain, Spain for UNHCR, are proud to announce today a new partnership with FC Barcelona and the FC Barcelona Foundation.
The partnership will span the next four years. From next season, the UNHCR/ACNUR logo will appear on the back of the iconic FC Barcelona jerseys worn by the men’s and women’s first team and the Barça Genuine Foundation team, below each player’s number, with the aim of raising awareness of the plight of refugees and forcibly displaced people around the world.
In addition, the Foundation will make a cash contribution of €400,000 per football season towards four UNHCR projects on four continents (€100,000 per project), plus a separate donation (valued by the club at €100,000 per season) of FC Barcelona sports equipment, as well as the technical expertise of the FC Barcelona Foundation’s sports specialists.
By mid-2021, there were around 84 million people forcibly displaced around the world – a figure that has only grown with subsequent displacement in Afghanistan, Ukraine, and other crises. FC Barcelona and the FC Barcelona Foundation are turning their focus to people forced to flee, including children and youth displaced by conflict or persecution. The president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, has stressed the club’s desire to respond to the growing number and complexity of refugee crises.
UNHCR has been increasing its focus on the power of sport to help forcibly displaced people – and local communities that host them – to rebuild their lives.
FC Barcelona, through its Foundation, has collaborated with UNHCR since 2009 in various initiatives and programmes for people forced to flee. The Foundation has developed several of its own programmes in refugee settlements in Greece and Lebanon, and for unaccompanied children in Italy and Spain. In 2019, the FC Barcelona Foundation joined the Sport for Refugees Coalition, which was set up at UNHCR’s Global Refugee Forum, where it pledged to increase availability and access to organized sports and sport-based initiatives for refugee and hosting communities.
Media contacts:
- UNHCR: Matthew Saltmarsh, saltmars@unhcr.org
- Spain for UNHCR: Amaia Celorrio, acelorrio@eacnur.org
- FC Barcelona and the FC Barcelona Foundation: Xavier Vila Martinez, xavier.vila@fcbarcelona.cat
UNHCR
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights, and building a better future for people forced to flee their homes because of conflict and persecution. We deliver life-saving assistance such as shelter, food and water, help safeguard fundamental human rights, and develop solutions that ensure people have a safe place to call home. We work in over 130 countries, using our expertise to protect and care for millions of people.
SPAIN FOR UNHCR
Spain for UNHCR is a non-governmental organization, created in 1993, declared of Public Utility, proud to have more than 500,000 regular members and donors. Spain for UNHCR raises funds to meet the needs of the most vulnerable refugees and displaced people, supporting UNHCR’s humanitarian aid programmes around the world.
THE FC BARCELONA FOUNDATION
The Barça Foundation was launched in 1994 to support the children and youth of the most vulnerable social groups through sport and education in values, with the objective of contributing to a more just and inclusive society. The Barça Foundation frames its activities within the UN programs Sport for Development and Sustainable Development Goals.
The main action lines are educational access and support, violence prevention and conflict resolution in childhood and youth and combatting social exclusion and discrimination. Today, the Foundation reaches to more than 1,5 million beneficiaries around the world.
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Originally published by UNHCR on 24 March 2022.
