Football for Peace at Vatican: Kashif Siddiqi explains how sport can unite people

Kashif Siddiqi and Chilean legend Elias Figueroa co-founded Football for Peace.

Pope Francis
Pope Francis shakes hands with Prince Albert II of Monaco during the international conference on sports and faith "Sport at the Service of Humanity" at the Vatican Reuters

Football for Peace is a non-profit organisation, whose aim is to use diplomatic sports movement that creates dialogue to unite people. Kashif Siddiq co-founded the organisation along with Chilean legend Elias Figueroa, who first started Football for Peace in South America in 2006.

Since Siddiqi became the co-founder and bought the movement to the United Kingdom in 2013, Football for Peace has grown at a faster rate after doing several activities at the international stage. This has seen him being invited for the "Sport at the Service of Humanity." It will be held in the Vatican from 5 to 7 October and is the first world meeting of faith and sports.

Pope Francis, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, and president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach will attend the opening ceremony at the Vatican. Siddiqi, 30, is of the vision that he can use football as a medium to bring peace in regions affected by conflicts and war.

Siddiqi used a football analogy to move "Football for Peace" forward and he believes with the attention of global leaders, who he suggests are like world class players in the team, it becomes easier for him in spreading his organisation's message across the globe.

"The way is see is actually in football, if I don't pass the ball to my teammates, we cannot move forward and having the best players around helps you to move forward a lot quicker," Siddiqi told International Business Times.

"My vision is, now that I got people like Pope Francis, Ban Kin Mu, the head of the IOC and all these people supporting me, we are going to move a lot more quicker to spread the message around the world."

To know more about Football for Peace, visit their official website by clicking here.

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