Integration through football: Palm Strikers celebrate successful tournament!

Integration through football: Palm Strikers celebrate successful tournament!

Eschweger Torwiese, 37269 Eschwege, Deutschland - On June 16, 2025, the Eschweger Torwiese turned into a lively color spectrum of cultures when the football club Palm Strikers organized its ninth integration tournament. Around 200 people came to celebrate the team spirit and the community and to promote intercultural exchange. In view of the high temperatures, 50 participants also ventured to their sports badges, which underlined the motivation and the use of those present. As HNA, the tournament was not just an event for sports enthusiasts, but also a platform for integration.

The winning cup for the second team of the intercultural football group from Bad Sooden-Allendorf and the Werraland World Cup was particularly gratifying. The old trophy was broken last year and was generously replaced by Harry Niebeling, the deputy district football manager. The tournament was also a sign of durability and cohesion, as Dr. Philipp Kanzow, the district deputy, and Niebeling correctly raised in their speeches.

a festival of cultures and community

A total of 25 players from twelve different nations competed, including Eritrea, Albania, Chile, Ecuador, the Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan. This diversity made the event so special and impressively showed how sport can combine people. The hip-hop kids of TV Schwebda ensured a lively mood during the lunch break and round off the festival. A raffle with 550 prices, donated by Eschweger companies, added the program and provided additional enthusiasm among the participants.

The importance of such events was also emphasized by Erik Hogreve, the sports coordinator of the Werraland living environments and inclusion officers at the Werra-Meißner sports district. Hogreve warns against overvalating the performance in sport, since integration is also about the social environment and the encounters. Inclusion succeeds if the coexistence is lived without discussions, which in the best case could also be observed at the Palm Strikers.

The role of the volunteers

Another heart of the event was the numerous volunteers who made sure that the participants lacked nothing. "Volunteers are the backbone of inclusion work in sport", so Werraland . It shows how important this support is to create sustainable structures for everyone involved. The Sportkreis plans to expand the possible uses and further training for volunteers in order to integrate even more people with handicap into organized sport.

summarized the integration tournament of the Palm Strikers is more than just a sporting event. It offers a solid basis for intercultural encounters and actively promotes inclusion. As also in the study by BPB , the sport is impressive how important common activities for social integration are. And in this sense you can look forward to the next tournaments and the associated developments!