The League Of Tolerance

 Sasha Fomichov, Ukraine

Sasha Fomichov is CEO and head football coach at the League of Tolerance. He is originally a lawyer, educator, and coach from Donetsk, where he played football and established a futsal team. He moved to the city of Ivano-Frankivsk due to the conflict in his home region. The League of Tolerance is a charity focused on social education of people through sport, democratic participation and entrepreneurship - with a mission to create educational opportunities and encourage participation in sports.

What did you try to show with the photos?

I tried to show the lives of three groups of people, who have found themselves in football in different roles or have just started on this journey. 

Firstly, you can see girls and boys (mostly with fewer opportunities) who attended our free social football school, supported by the top club and Ukrainian Premier League champions FC "Shakhtar" (Donetsk). Secondly, we create projects for 15 young teenage interns who do not have these opportunities. For four months they study theory and get practical experience in football coaching and management.

And the third group are female players, referees and male coaches, who participated in the First Women’s League match of WFC "Prykarpattya" (Ivano-Frankivsk, Western Ukraine) against WFC "Cobra" (Bilokurakyne, Luhansk region) from the "grey zone" of military conflict in Eastern Ukraine. "Prykarpattya" won 10-0.

The photos were taken in Ivano-Frankivsk, a city of 250,000 inhabitants. I showed the main regional stadium "Ruh", what means "Movement", established in the Soviet Union era, and a 20x40 metre football pitch with artificial grass, built in 2018 by local authorities at the biggest school in the city.

Was there any wider meaning with the photos?

Maybe I could call my photo story "Gender (Un)Reality”. As one of our main values and tasks, we are making efforts to facilitate female visibility in the most popular Ukrainian sport of football. I think that one reason why it is harder for girls to play at the same level as boys when they are 7-8 years old is because parents give footballs to girls much less often than to boys when they are babies. To reduce difference, we integrate positive discrimination measures, like when a goal is scored by a girl it is counted as 2. Before this, females mostly played as goalkeepers or defenders. Now, boys understand the advantage to have girls as attackers and provide significantly more passes to them. 

This is the same work that I do in coaching. Little girls and boys should not only see men as “bearers of truth”. That is why it is very important to involve and educate female coaches. We work with the European Solidarity Corps and US Peace Corps to invite female volunteers with a background in sports coaching or management to our community.

For example, if you analyze all the team squads of coaches and assistants among the 10 professional Women Football Clubs in the Ukrainian Women’s Premier League for the 2019/20 season you will count 40 male and 10 female coaches, with only one female head coach. That inequality has many roots and one of the main issues is a huge difference in salaries. According to the newest data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, female employees in the arts, sports, entertainment and recreation spheres have earned only 65% of male salaries. 

By creating sustainable and cyclical initiatives with permanent male and female mixed cooperation as players, coaches, referees and managers we can create a new, gender equal normality in sport and the whole of society for future generations. 

Can you tell us your personal story?

When I was a kid, my favourite television series was "The Pretender". This is probably why I like to combine several professions and constantly master new ones. Now I mainly work as a lawyer, educator and football coach, but before the outbreak of hostilities in my native Donetsk, I was engaged in business in the field of trade. After being forced to move to Western Ukraine in 2014, I concentrated on social work. I was a mentor for an orphaned child and worked as a team leader in a UNHCR project.

Two years ago, I became an ambassador of the UEFA #EqualGame campaign. This big honour and responsibility were given because of our internationally recognised creation of inclusive environments and social education through football, which was done for young people with disabilities, internally displaced children and kids from ethnic minority backgrounds. Personally, I am also IDP and ethnic Greek, and it is very good for my coaching to show integration and be a role model.

Now, I use every chance to share my experience and educational developments. For example, I authored the first Ukrainian MOOC (‘Massive Online Open Course’) called "New Physical Culture" (2020) for physical education teachers, parents and coaches - with free access to learn and with the possibility to gain the professional growth certificate online.

What is your favourite photo?

Diana is one of the brightest female stars in our grassroots initiative. We got to know each other when she was 11. Diana experienced playing in early childhood, but she was not enjoying football and just came from time-to-time to watch others play. Now, Diana does not miss any training and demonstrates excellent leadership skills.

In 2019, we were lucky to take six teenagers to Cologne for the Social Football Summit, at the invitation of the famous German striker Lukas Podolski. Diana was one of them, and upon her return she began to research the social power of football. She is one of our 15 interns and I am sure she will become a great coach in the not-too-distant future.

Did you play football before you came to Ivano-Frankivsk? If so, who with?

I only played as an amateur football player. Using profit from my business I established and supported a futsal team in Donetsk, where most players were young people in difficult life situations, such as former drug addicts or people from low-income families.

Why did you leave your home? 

My wife and I were expecting a baby and were not in the mood to leave. But when our house was fired upon with mortars twice in one week, there was no point in staying. 

What role does football play in your life at the moment?

I coach kids from 4-6 days per week and we initiate 5-6 different football related projects for kids each year, mostly related to the UN SDGs, such as our new Female Empowerment Program, supported for 2021 by FIFA Foundation. So, it is easier to answer about role of life in my football :)

Why is football important to you and your community?

I see football as an excellent tool to create social cohesion and make a safe environment for self-expression.

We try to be as inclusive as we can and invite all the kids without any limits. We have an agreement with local football association and create our own League of Tolerance (the same as the name of our NGO). We have a rule that everybody in each team should play an equal quantity of time. Before every game teams think tactically and reach a common decision about who will play in first half and who in the second. But everybody knows that all players will play the same amount of time on the field. Using this we reduce reasons for conflicts and bullying. Children understand that if you want to win it is better to support all your team members, to help them show their best abilities and make a bigger impact to achieve a joint goal.

And, of course, we do not recruit children for talent or any other characteristics. Success for us is if every child has fun and joy from the game, communication and football interaction with others. This helps to build a really strong and open-hearted community.

Do you play football now with local people? How do you find the people in Ivano-Frankivsk?

I like to travel, and I have been to about 50 countries, and in all the 25 regions of Ukraine. Everywhere I meet very kind and interesting people to create synergy in educational or social spheres.

Of course, I really like living permanently in cosy and comfortable Ivano-Frankivsk. Sometimes I play football with local adults also, when we organize family days. Using football, I invest my time to develop not only athletes, but scientists and artists also, and parents appreciate us for this.

And, it should be noted, that in 2018 Ivano-Frankivsk was recognized with The Europe Prize – awarded each year by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to the town most active in promoting the European ideal. So, it is very good for my inner world to feel supported outside through shared democratic attitudes and values.

What ambitions do you have for the future?

As a typical educator, I am proud of the successes of my students and graduates of courses I have organised. It is a very big joy to see how they realize their ambitions helped by your small impact.

And one day, I will be happy to discover Ukrainian communities and see everywhere at least 30% female representation in grassroots football environments.