At its peak over 9000 refugees were living in the Calais Jungle with low morale and little hope. But there’s one thing that let them forget everything and allowed us to tell their stories. The universal language of football.
With this in mind we pitched our idea to football channel Copa 90, and together created The Liberté Cup - an epic one day tournament for the refugees in northern France. It was not a political campaign, nor a charity, and we were not asking to open borders. The aim was simple. To change the way refugees are viewed in the media.
Support for the tournament came in from pro players like Lionel Messi bringing media coverage across the world, and teams and supporters travelled far and wide to take part in the epic day of football.
Results
A documentary about the tournament was created by Copa 90 and aired for one year on ITV Hub. Media coverage spread across The UK, France, Spain and Argentina achieving our goal of changing the media perception of refugees.