A week-long capacity building programme will bring together youngsters from eight European countries to Niš, Southern Serbia, to experience the value of intercultural training through sport.

The ‘Play for Peace’ meeting, hosted by the not for profit organisation Club for Youth Empowerment 018, will foster youth participation and development through peer education programmes and workshops.

Participants from Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy and Bosnia and Herzegovina will engage in thematic and sports workshops, including sport rules and fair-play discussions and football and martial arts training, to explore sports’ power for inclusion.

Sanja Tosic, President of Club for Youth Empowerment 018, said: “We consider sport as a great educational tool to engage young people and raise awareness of discrimination and hate speech.”

The ‘Play for Peace’ project is a unique opportunity that invites young people from different countries to work together and send across a message of fair-play, respect and tolerance, values that we all should cherish!”

A dedicated segment of programme will discuss discrimination and hate speech in football, focusing on fans' role in addressing the topic in stadium terraces.

The meeting, which will take place between 31 August and 7 September, is supported by the European Youth Foundation and the Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sports.