Football Remembers is a campaign being delivered jointly by the Premier League, The FA and the Football League, in partnership with the British Council, and will see a number of events taking place throughout December to commemorate the First World War.
Staff at British Embassies, High Commissions and Consulates around the world are marking the 100th anniversary of the First World War Christmas Truce by organising a series of football events, to commemorate the moment that British and German soldiers came together in 1914 and played football in no-man’s land.
Christmas 1914
A series of unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front around Christmas 1914 took place in the week leading up to the holiday. German and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk, while several meetings ended in carol singing. Men from both sides mingled and played games of football with one another, creating one of the most enduring images of the truce.
FootballRemembers in Greece
On Saturday 20 December at 13.00 Panathinaikos FC and the Greek Homeless Football Team will meet at the training centre of PAO FC “G. Kalafatis” in Koropi for an informal football get-together, commemorating the ‘Christmas Truce’. Through this event we are all delivering messages of peace, friendship, solidarity in difficult times, the positive effect of sport and celebrating human nature.
The Greek Homeless team is a symbol of hope and has become a lifeline for many people in the last few years in Greece. They travelled to Santiago, Chile, earlier this year to participate in the World Cup of Homeless Football teams. It is a project ran by Shedia street paper, a member of the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) and winner of the Social Impact Award 2014 at the Social Business excellence Awards 2014. The British Embassy in Athens has supported Shedia in Sports Relief 2014.
