From the World Cup to World Crises: How Soccer Transforms Children's Lives

LONDON (June 3, 2026) - As the world prepares to watch the 2026 World Cup, soccer is helping children to stay safe and recover from trauma on makeshift pitches, across refugee camps, and in communities impacted by conflict across the globe.

Across multiple crisis-affected countries, soccer-based programs run and supported by Save the Children are creating protective spaces where children can play and heal at a time when a record one in five children are living through conflict.

In some of the world’s toughest environments, from Sudan to Ukraine to Lebanon, soccer is providing far more than entertainment – it is helping children stay safe, process trauma and reclaim a sense of childhood.

Launched in 2018 at Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, Save the Children and The Arsenal Foundation’s ‘Coaching for Life’ program uses the power of soccer to create a sense of belonging and improve the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of children.

Over 6,800 children between the ages of 10 and 18 have graduated from the program. Through innovative approaches including mini-leagues and community-led engagement, it delivers structured, safe and supportive environments while adapting to evolving community needs.

Imran*, 14, said:

“I feel happy when I meet my friends on the pitch, I feel like I am at my house with my sibling.”

Tala*, 13, said:

“On the pitch, I feel freedom.”

At a school repurposed into a collective shelter for displaced people and communities in Lebanon, Wael*, 11, found comfort in some of the activities on offer for children.

“I joined all the activities: Soccer, basketball, coloring,” Wael*, who was forced to flee his home following escalations in Lebanon earlier this year, said.

At a child-friendly space in Egypt run by Save the Children, soccer is one of the activities on offer for children like Ahmad*, 11, who lost both his parents and two siblings after his home in Gaza was bombed in 2023 in an Israeli military strike.

Ahmad* was injured by shrapnel to the head and back, causing permanent disfigurement and leaving him with both physical and emotional scars from the traumatic event.

Following the attack, Ahmad* left Gaza with his grandmother, uncle’s family, and surviving siblings and fled to Egypt.

At the child-friendly space, children like Ahmad receive mental health and wellbeing support and play sports including soccer.

But Save the Children’s soccer programs are not limited to conflict or crisis settings.

In Hong Kong, the charity’s ‘Play to Thrive’ program, which launched in 2023, uses soccer to promote the physical and mental wellbeing of children aged 6 through 12 and collaborates with over 30 primary schools across the territory.  

The program includes parent-child training sessions to build positive parenting skills and improve children’s emotional management in a city where living space comes at a premium and academic pressures are notoriously high leading to mental health challenges among about a quarter of children and adolescents.

Kai Long, 8, takes part in the program. He said:

"I used to blame my teammates for not passing the ball, but now I’ve learned not to. I tell them: 'It’s okay, pass it again next time. We’ll win the ball back together.”

Soccer is also a thread that runs through one of Save the Children’s most extraordinary family reunification stories.

In 2005, Martunis Sarbini, then seven years old, was found on a beach in Aceh, Indonesia, wearing a Portugal soccer jersey after surviving one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history: the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Martunis, now 29, was taken to Save the Children where staff were waiting to help him and he was later reunited with his father and grandmother. After his recovery, Martunis was signed to Sporting Lisbon’s soccer academy before returning to Indonesia.

Arlo Kitchingman, Senior Education Advisor at Save the Children, said:

“Soccer is fun, but for children living in crisis or emergency settings it’s a form of play that gives them a focus, a break from the harsh realities of their daily lives, an activity and place to reconnect with their peers and a sense of agency, helping them process their experiences and rebuild community, essential parts of finding hope for a better future.” 

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