Spanish giant Real Madrid has become the latest football club to
come to the aid of refugees arriving in Europe after announcing it will donate
€1 million ($1.1 million) to help displaced people taken in by Spain.
"Faithful
to its commitment to charity, the club has taken this decision with the aim of
supporting men, women and children who have been forced to leave their homes in
order to flee from war and death," read a statement
published on the Real Madrid's websiteSaturday.
The president of
the 10-time European Cup winners, Florentino Perez, confirmed the move after
discussing the issue with Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy by phone Friday,
the club said.
"(Real
Madrid) is considering various initiatives and schemes with a special focus
placed on the youngest refugees," the statement continued.
"It will
also make some of the club's infrastructure and sports goods available to the
(Spanish government's) inter-ministerial commission that organizes the system
for receiving refugees."
Real Madrid star
Cristiano Ronaldo, currently on international duty with Portugal, also took to
Twitter Friday to weigh in on the issue which has dominated news reports and
front pages across the continent in the past week.
"No one at
the national team is indifferent to Europe's refugee crisis. All our thoughts
are with those people," he wrote.
Football responds to refugee crisis
Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing
the likes of war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as troubled countries
in North Africa have poured into Europe this year.
A
United Nations spokesperson told CNN earlier this week that more than 300,000 people had
attempted the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing into Europe since January.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 2,600
people have died making this journey in 2015 alone.
Many more have
arrived in Europe via alternative routes. In late August, the bodies of 71
refugees were discovered in
an abandoned truck near Austria's border with Germany.
The brutal
severity of the issue was further hammered home this week when the body of three-year-old
refugee Aylan Kurdi, who had fled Syria with his parents and
brother, was pictured washed up on a beach in Turkey after the smuggler's boat
the family was traveling in capsized.
Chaotic scenes
of thousands of refugees stranded
at a train station in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, meanwhile, emphasized
the sheer scale of the problem and continuing disagreement amongst European
politicians in how to address it.
Spanish PM Rajoy stated this week that Spain would take its
"fair share" of refugees although his political opponents at home
have demanded he do more.
The Iberian
nation has so far committed to receiving just
under 3,000 displaced people this year. Yet that number pales compared to
Germany which has stated it expects to provide shelter for 800,000 refugees
from Syria alone during the same period.
Echoing their
government, German football clubs and fans have been among the most vociferous
and generous in campaigning on the refugee issue in recent weeks.
A number of fan
groups have displayed banners reading "Refugees Welcome" at matches
while clubs such as Hamburg have offered to house refugee camps in stadium car
parks and arranged matches to raise funds for new arrivals in the country.
Reigning German
league champion Bayern Munich announced its own $1.1 million donation to the refugee cause last week. It
also released details of training camps which will offer meals and language
classes to refugee children.
In the north of
the country, Bayern's likely title rival Borussia Dortmund offered free match
tickets to 200 refugees for its Europa League tie with Odds Ballklubb last
week. Dortmund also issued a statement declaring that Germany needs migrants
and that the country's social security system will fall apart without them.
"For the good of humanity"
Elsewhere in Germany, Bundesliga clubs
Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen have invited refugees to lead out their players
on match days as club mascots while the German national team hasreleased a video calling for solidarity and warning
against xenophobia.
According to
Ceylan Hussein, a former press officer at German second tier club, St Pauli,
the reaction of fans has been important in publicizing the plight of refugees
and encouraging action.
"The
consensus is that, given its vast audience, football is a magnificent stage for
an appeal such as this," Hussein said.
"Club and
fans are known to be continuously calling for more people to accept social
responsibility. This isn't for the good of the game, it's for the good of
humanity," she added.
These powerful
fan sentiments have spread rapidly across the continent in the past few weeks.
In England, talk
of supporter groups showing their solidarity with refugees has been growing.
Many have taken to social media to advocate the display of positive banners and
statements to coincide with the next round of national league fixtures.
Scottish champions Celtic -- a club initially founded to help
immigrants fleeing the devastation of the Irish potato famine in the late
nineteenth century and whose Green Brigade ultras group was among the first to
display banners reading "Refugees Welcome" back in 2007 -- has also
vowed to donate the proceeds of a friendly match this weekend to refugee
charities.
In Italy,
meanwhile, football teams such as Koa
Bosco and San Michel have been
founded to help integrate refugees and migrants into communities in the south
of the country.
Given the
strength of feeling among fan groups on the issue, and with refugees continuing
to pour into the continent in search of safety and shelter, these are unlikely
to be the last gestures of kindness in the weeks and months ahead.
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