At Hampden for a preview of Refugee World Cup 2025

National World - LocalTV

We speak to Pat Bonner, Cammy Bell and Abdul Bostani on the Refugee World Cup in Scotland 2025.

Transcript

00:00The Refugee World Cup has been there since 2012.

00:06We started from five-a-side football tournament, and then next year seven-a-side, and then

00:13team has increased every year.

00:15So now we captured the maximum 24 teams participating in Touring Lane, and we brought a lot of partners,

00:23so various different organizations like this year, it is sponsored by Weekly Home and always

00:29Glasgow Life has been involved in the tournament, and the idea of this tournament is during

00:36World Refugee Day, which is 21st of June, and a lot of participants coming from a refugee

00:41asylum background, but it is an open, inclusive tournament to everybody.

00:46We have 50 nationalities within this tournament, and we have over 250 players participating,

00:53hundreds of spectators coming watching the tournament.

00:57It is about integration, bringing people together, and the new citizen of Scotland, we call it

01:05new scott, integrating into the site to be better.

01:08And through this, we want to show the talent of refugees and asylum seekers in terms of sport

01:16and football.

01:17In the past, and from our league, from our team, lots of players have managed to go even to Celtic,

01:23some of them to Rangers Reserve, some of them went to Chelsea, West Ham, and all different

01:30professional levels.

01:31So we just want to show those levels in here, and there are some good levels.

01:36In the future, we never know if some of these players will play for Scotland, and they will,

01:42also, because that is the intention of every player to come and play and move on, be semi-professional,

01:49professional, and do better.

01:51So this is what's all about, integration, equality, peace, active citizenship, and coming,

02:01integrating into the new home, new society.

02:04It's just great to see the inclusiveness of everybody being allowed to be involved in such

02:10a great project.

02:11And we all know that football brings communities together, and it's so important for people

02:16in their lives.

02:17I think it creates friendships, it creates communities, as I mentioned before, but it's

02:23brilliant to see the amount of effort that gets put into it, the amount of people that

02:27want to be involved in it, what a play.

02:29And yeah, as I say, football for me, certainly throughout my career, brought me a lot of

02:34friendship and a lot of joy.

02:36So it's great to see what the guys are doing.

02:38For me, it's a fantastic cause, and it's a brilliant opportunity for people to integrate

02:43into our society.

02:44And listen, I'm all for that.

02:46As an Irishman coming over here, when I was a young boy, I had to, albeit very different

02:51circumstances, I had to integrate into a different society.

02:56And football was my way in, and I made fantastic friends.

03:00So I know how important integration is, and I'm all for it.

03:04And this is fantastic.

03:06And sport has got that as a tool, isn't it?

03:08As a tool for that, and football in general.

03:11So I'm very, very happy to have been supporting this today.

03:14Yeah.

03:15Yeah.

03:17Great.

03:19And good luck.

03:21So we enjoy the work of the other, indeed.

03:23We'll make some work of this a day.

03:26We'll make some work through this.

03:28And I'll tell them just too soon.

03:31And I'll tell them again.

03:32And our discussion today.

03:33Hear them again really a bit.

03:35Hear them all the way through the place.

03:36Hear them all the way through the path.

03:37We'll keep Hurry up them all over your faith through the place.

03:38Hey, were you there?

03:39That's cool.

03:40Wow.

03:41Sure.

03:42Very goodowner was able.

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