Al-Salaam Football School

Al-Salaam Football School was founded in 2005 by Falah Ashoor, a former Iraqi refugee in Denmark, and his brother Jamal Ashoor, with a mission to promote reconciliation and peaceful co-existence between Iraqis from different demographic groups. In collaboration with Cross Cultures, the Ashoor brothers used the OFFS project as a springboard for Falah’s repatriation to Iraq and succeeded in establishing a football club inspired by the Danish association model, with an elected board, statutes, transparent administration, active membership etc. The club started out by arranging football training in a landfill in Bagdad, but has since managed to secure proper facilities for trainers, volunteers and children participating in the daily sport- and educational activities as well as OFFS, festivals and football coach courses. Today, Al-Salaam is an accomplished civil society organization, specialized in sports organizing, mobilizing volunteers and collaborating with a broad range of civic and public actors across the country and has experience cooperating with the Danish embassy in Bagdad, the Swedish international development agency (SIDA), various UN agencies and INGOs. Moreover, the organization enjoys solid relations with municipalities and authorities across the country, the Ministry of Sport and Youth as well as the Iraqi Olympic Committee. Al-Salaam has managed to stay neutral throughout political and sectarian conflicts and has instead worked on bringing people with different backgrounds to build positive relations through sport. The daily operation is managed by four fulltime employees, eight part-time employees and several volunteers.