Football is the universal language of scores of millions of people around the world, including
countless children and teenagers. Young people play in narrow, urban alleyways. They play in refugee camps. They play in abandoned swimming pools. In car parks, war zones, on street corners--wherever there are young people, it seems there is football.
Children play football at the launch of the FIFA-UNICEF alliance at United Nations Headquarters in New York. But the sport is more than just a game. It's a positive lifestyle. It's a way to promote a peaceful approach to conflict resolution. It's a tool for wooing a young body away from the lures of drugs, unsafe sex, or violence. It's a way to help ensure that young people grow up healthy, fit and full of self-esteem.
And, what's more, it's a manifestation of the right to play that the Convention on the Rights of the Child includes as one of the fundamental rights of all children.
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