Why actually have a football festival?
The International, Intercultural Football Encounter Festival 2024 for youth teams is the continuation of the nationwide, moving day of remembrance of the former Jewish football club SK Bar Kochba Leipzig in 2013 and our International Football Encounter Festival since 2015. At the last event in 2023, we were able to welcome around over 8,000 visitors Welcoming visitors and over 600 participants to the festival's various events. The international guests traveled to Leipzig from all over Europe.
Our football encounter festival 2024 is a great sports festival over several days where people from different cultures and countries come together. Above all, the festival stands for tolerance and acceptance, both for the spectators and for the athletes. We have also prepared a diverse program for you.
Teams from all over Germany, teams from refugee projects and international teams, for example from Israel and the Czech Republic, will take part. All teams support the idea of encounters and tolerance. The clubs with Jewish players in particular experience an open atmosphere here that is often missing in their own regions.
The teams play for various trophies dedicated to the brothers Max and Leo Bartfeld and SK Bar Kochba. The Bartfeld family was involved in the Jewish football club SK Bar Kochba Leipzig, which was dissolved during the time of National Socialist terror. The Bartfeld Family Prize is awarded with the express consent of the last living family members, as a symbol against anti-Semitism in football and in society.
Our festival is not only an international sporting event, but also a symbol for democracy and against anti-Semitism and right-wing extremism. We also remember the crimes of National Socialist terror and organize the day with various sporting and cultural events. It is our obligation to keep the memory of the victims alive and to pass on an important message to current and future generations: Never again war, never again National Socialism, never again concentration camps! As a democratic society, we must resolutely confront injustice, whether in the past or today.
"The international football festival is not just about victories, but about building bridges between nations. We don't just play for the win, but for the vision: never again separation, always for global community and against all anti-Semitism!"
Organizers of the IFBF