Portrait series: Clear the stage for diverse & inclusive associations! #2

fairplay would like to put those clubs and initiatives in front of the curtain that are working for more diversity, inclusion and anti-discrimination in their club and environment in their everyday life. To pay respect for the enormously important work that is done here in and through sport, to empower others and to create role models.

Part 2: the Diözesansportgemeinschaft Ferlach.
Author: Stefan Bleyer

The Diozesansportgemeinschaft, or DSG Ferlach for short, has been a reliable contact point for sports enthusiasts, fans or people who need help in certain matters for many years. In the club, social justice is not only preached, the club proves to be a prime example of living integrity. Whether in the youth sector, adult sports or fan culture, people from all over the world come together at the sports field in Unterbergen and have the opportunity to find a home here.

From youth to adult sports

The junior section of the diocesan sports community works like a well-oiled machine. The coaches enjoy professional training and have pedagogical knowledge. These are applied in all areas of youth training. From an early age, children are taught not only the necessary feeling for the ball, but also the necessary tact. Everyone of all ages is welcome to train at Unterbergen. The club is run like a family, from toddler age upwards, respectful interaction is taught and lived on and off the pitch. The club takes part in a variety of projects, such as the fair play action week, as well as others. In addition, the club's own projects and events make sure that the values that the club shares with the fairplay initiative are also conveyed. Most recently, the club took part in the annual action weeks for diversity and discrimination in football. fairplay employee David Hudelist is particularly proud: "I am pleased that teams here in Carinthia are also involved. What is important for us at fairplay, however, is our work beyond the action weeks. In addition to counselling, we offer training courses and workshops for clubs and organise training sessions and camps for children and youths.

And DSG Ferlach is a reliable partner for the work outside the campaign week. Whether at the big Rosentaler Nachwuchscup, the biggest youth football tournament in Carinthia, or at the football star camp in the summer, the club is always keen to convey and consolidate this important message of fair play to the younger generation, but also in the adult sector.

Fruits of the work

Many of the refugees who have found a new home in Austria or have come here temporarily have also found a home and a place to go in the club. The club is enriched by new players, who in turn are accepted into a community and help out the club again and again, both as players and as volunteers. One of these volunteers - and players - is Feroz Noori. Feroz is affectionately called "Franz" in the team and has been a member of DSG Ferlach since 2013. He is a reliable help both as a player and off the pitch and it is hard to imagine the club without him.

Feroz lives in the nearby home for refugees in Ferlach - Görtschach. Barbara Ogris, daughter of the club's chairman, says: "We have been working with the refugee home in Görtschach for a long time. Bernhard Markun was the driving force behind this cooperation. Since then, we have been bringing children and young people from the home to the club to teach them how to play football.

At the beginning, the children and youths had their own training directly at the home in Görtschach, but soon afterwards it was moved to the sports facility in Unterbergen; the players were integrated into the youth teams and today the first players, such as Feroz, are already playing in the adult section of the club.

Sport as a means of integration

Sport in itself is very important for the body, health and social cohesion. Nobody knows better than Siegfried Stupnig, head of the ASPIS project "FC. International". Through the prevention project with people from war and crisis areas, which is financed by the Federal Chancellery and co-financed by the province of Carinthia, psychologist Stupnig takes important steps towards successful integration. Sport plays an essential role in terms of integration. Stupnig explains: "Sport is the central measure of the project. I reach a lot of people through sport. On the football pitch, if you like, you can practise social behaviour. In other words, only with effort can you achieve something, in this case a victory. You have to follow the rules, in this case those of the referee or the training manager, but I am also interested in making contacts.

Stupnig affirms that sport gives people the opportunity to really feel their bodies, to recharge their batteries and their zest for life. The health aspects of sport also play an important role: moving and exerting oneself, testing one's limits and getting to know them.

The DSG Ferlach association is aware of this. Thus, caregivers and residents of the Görtschach home are reliably invited to the camps and events. "We want this common inclusive thought to come to the teams. From the very beginning, the children are involved and from this a mutual learning with mutual consideration develops," says Barbara Ogris.

Ogris also co-organises the Ferlach Games Festival, in which the ASPIS idea plays an important role. "This is a festival of encounter. In the first years, we deliberately invited children from the home, who then didn't have to pay for anything. At our football star camp, the fairplay initiative is also always involved in order to combine sport with social issues: here, too, there are always children from our club, but also from the home," explains Ogris.

Back to the story of Feroz. He has been part of the DSG family since 2013. When he arrived, he had the opportunity to play football for several clubs in the area. He explains his decision to join DSG as follows: "The people who wanted to play football before me also chose DSG, so I came along. I quickly settled in and felt comfortable, even though a lot of things were new to me. When you spend a long time with different people, you learn to understand what makes them tick. There are individual differences from person to person, but the longer you spend with someone, the better you know your counterpart."

Feroz's words make clear what is often neglected in modern society. Direct contact with each other. It is very easy to jump to conclusions through social or traditional media. Through sport, however, people with diverse origins and backgrounds have the opportunity to meet and learn to appreciate each other as well as to get to know each other in their diversity. And DSG Ferlach, like many other clubs, offers this meeting space. Barbara Ogris says: "In Ferlach, but also in general in times like these, different cultural groups of people come together and the DSG Ferlach should be such a place where religious and cultural backgrounds play second fiddle and everyone can find a place to grow regardless of their origin and religion."

The DSG Family

With the example of Feroz, but also many other people from the home in Görtschach and other people with a migration background, the Diözesan Sportgemeinschaft Ferlach was able to strengthen itself in the long term. In addition to his footballing qualities for the team, the DSG family was able to expand and gain new members and also friends. Feroz passionately helps out when there is work to be done at the club and enriches the whole club. He himself is very happy to have found accommodation at DSG Ferlach and hopes that things will continue like this. "I was perfectly integrated right from the start. I have never felt like a foreigner and I hope that it will continue like this and that future generations will also think like this."