English version of the interview in Sportallarovescia:
When was it born FC Lampedusa Hamburg? Who are the person and the reality that have formed it? How refugees from Libya arrived to form a football team in Hamburg?
FC Lampedusa Hamburg is a football team made up of players from the Lampedusa Refugee Group in Hamburg, the west african migrants, who worked for years in Libya until they were forced to flee from violence and war across the Mediterranean Sea to the Italian island of Lampedusa.
There they had to live in detention centers financed by the EU. When the EU stopped funding these centers, the Italian authorities equipped the fugitives with residence permits on humanitarian reasons, after this they sent them to northern Europe.
Over 300 of the so-called “Lampedusa Refugees” arrived in winter of 2012/13 in Hamburg and were provided shelter by the municipal winter emergency program. There people from different countries of origin, different religions and different language groups came together. When this program ended in April 2013, the people were forced to live in the streets whilst the Hamburg Senate urged them to return to Italy, despite there being no prospect of work for them here.
80 of the refugees were given shelter in the St.Pauli Church in Hamburg and were warmly welcomed into the local community with the support of the neighborhood and fans of the FC St.Pauli, who for example invited the refugees to the matches of the FC St.Pauli, to the training ground and to some friendly matches vs teams of the FC St.Pauli, like at the 1 of august 2013 with the 8th men division of the FC St.Pauli.. During the winter of 2013/14 the St..Pauli church and others provided containers for some of the refugees to stay in. Many others found places in a self-organized solidarity winter emergency program in residential projects, club rooms and private apartments.
Now, many of the refugees are back in the streets again, still fighting politically and socially for their right to live and work in Hamburg. The Hamburg Senate, the city government, is simply sitting out the problem and still insists on their return to Italy, which is completely overchallenged as a Mediterranean state in the midst of the current economic crisis and can‘t offer the fugitives any prospects for their future well-being,
To capture the publics attention of this unacceptable situation and the fact, that the group of Lampedusa in Hamburg and a lot of more refugees are still here, and also to put pressure on the government of the city of Hamburg, we decided together to reactivate the footballteam and to make it more professional and more visible.
So, Football at FC Lampedusa Hamburg has a political component:
FC Lampedusa Hamburg wants to create awareness and draw attention to the general evils of European refugee policy.
Our SLOGAN is: „We are here to play – we are here to stay!“
What are the activities and initiative you will realize as Lampedusa FC Hamburg?
– Primarily: It’s all about sport.
First and foremost, FC Lampedusa is a football team: 30 men, who love football have a chance to come together regularly for training, friendly matches, tournaments. Also now they are playing in the HFFG, the Hamburg Parttime league, where also teams can play, which are not officially belonging to regular clubs, enabling them to leave their dreary and troubled life behind for a few hours. Thus, playing football enables the player to meet new people and to develop a feeling of acceptance in the local community.
The Coaching Crew currently consists of five women who train the team voluntarily. For many years, this group of women have been involved in the running of the handball and women‘s and girls‘ football department as well as various other social projects connected to the FC St.Pauli.
- At the same time: It’s about getting attention
Furthermore the FC Lampedusa is taking part in political events, such as refugee welcome events,
for example a couple of weeks ago in Babelsberg 03, in Potsdam, near Berlin, where another footballteam of refugees was formed, to link up with other struggling refugees and initiatives who are supporting the rights of refugees. Besides the sportive factor a lot of PR and public work is done such as selling FC Lampedusa Supporter Shirts, Membercards and Stickers on certain events. Further interviews on the desolate situation of refugees in Europe are given and even an important football channel SKY Sport (Pay TV) made a segment on the FC Lampedusa.
In Italy, the President of the Italian Federation football game, mr. Tavecchio, has expressed racist remarks during a public meeting, and was sanctioned by the European institutions for this reason. Are there some problems of racism in the environments of sports and football in Germany, in the supporters, sports or institutions?
The FC Lampedusa Hamburg is nearly all over warm welcomed, most people of Hamburg and around shows a lot of solidarity with the FC Lampedusa Hamburg,, the people of the group Lampedusa in Hamburg and other refugees, the FC St.Pauli and also the HSV, the 1. Division Club of Hamburg give free tickets for asylum seekers and refugees, collect warm clothes and so on. Even the Hamburg Sports Association released a press release in which its stated that the citizens of Hamburg should show more solidarity to refugees in supporting them and giving them shelter over the winter. Of course there are a lot of institutional and personal racism all around the city, but the biggest problems are the racist policies of the government of Hamburg, Germany and the European Community.
What are the reactions from the people of Hamburg, the media of the city and of the country, the players of the opposing teams with respect to your team?
As already said refugees are in general very warm welcomed in this city. Of course, there are some parts of the city where citizens are not keen in becoming refugees as their neighbors. But we think, that the topic of Lampedusa refuges in Hamburg created more and new attention to the negative refugee policies in Europe and especially in Hamburg. It seems like that many people woke up and supported the group of Lampedusa in Hamburg through donations (e.g. money, cloth, bikes) and also to their manpower on the streets.
Huge demonstrations, attended by thousands of people from Hamburg, supported the right for the Lampedusa refugees to remain in the city took part. During racist police controls many people went out on the street to show their support and to intervene.
Also the opponents of FC Lampedusa meet the players with respect and the recognition of a “normal” football team. Also the fact, that the Hamburg parttime league admitted the FC Lampedusa in their league – even though this is contrary to the rules – shows the solidarity in the sports sector.
Also the media got attracted by the actions of the FC Lampedusa. Already after the foundation of the team some media stations reported about the team. Now, after the professionalization of the team, the media attention got even more. Local TV channels and football platforms – such as fussball.de (A platform of the DFB)- reported on the sportive actions and on the social and political fight of the FC Lampedusa.
Gretings the FC Lampedusa Hamburg
