How Truce Tournament provides lessons to last a lifetime

This December, Under-12 players from eight Academies and participants from the Premier League Kicks programme travelled to the Belgian city of Ypres to take part in the latest Premier League Christmas Truce Tournament.

The Truce Tournament has been running since 2011 and provides a unique footballing, cultural and educational experience for young people, giving them the opportunity to test themselves against top players from other European teams while also learning about the sacrifices made during World War I.

They do all of this while recognising the spirit of the Christmas Day Truce of 1914, where amid the horrors of conflict, soldiers on opposing sides laid down their weapons on 25 December to play football and exchange gifts.

"It's a great opportunity for us to bring out our Under-12 boys to not only take part in an elite football tournament where they're competing against some of the best young talent from across Europe, but also learning about the history of the First World War and what so many individuals did to make sure that we continue to have the freedom that we do today," said Premier League Director of Football Neil Saunders.

"Hopefully that whole holistic experience that we're providing for them can support their development both on and off the pitch."

To reach the Truce Tournament, Academies took part in qualifying events on Remembrance Sunday at four military venues across the country - Aldershot, Catterick, Cosford and Portsmouth - with Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Southampton earning spots in Belgium.

Alongside the football competition, the Premier League, in partnership with Big Ideas, has introduced an educational project for the Academy teams called "Power in Pals - The Football Battalion".

Through this project, clubs completed three interactive missions for a chance to secure an additional spot in the main tournament. These were: creating a team portrait, designing a recruitment poster and fostering friendships to promote community unity.

Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion and Southampton won the education competition and they joined the other five English clubs in a tournament that also featured Bayer 04 Leverkusen, RSC Anderlecht, KRC Genk and Toulouse.

After two days of intense competition, it was Southampton who were crowned winners after they claimed a 2-0 victory over RSC Anderlecht in the final.

Alongside the Academy competition, 32 Premier League Kicks participants representing the charitable arms of Chelsea, Southampton, Swansea City and West Bromwich Albion took part in an Under-18 girls' tournament delivered by the Premier League Charitable Fund.

The event celebrated the League's commitment to increasing opportunities for girls and young women to play and it was West Brom who ran out winners by beating Southampton 2-1 in the final.

"It's really important," said Aaliyah Browne, Female Engagement Lead at West Brom's Albion Foundation. "It just gives them the opportunity to focus on new things and do new things.

"It's really good that we get to mix with the other coaches and the other teams. A lot of the girls haven't met other players that are from different regions, different areas."

As well as the action on the pitch, all of the players taking part were involved in a wide variety of educational activities, including a visit to the Christmas Truce Memorial at Mesen, participating in the ceremony at the Menin Gate Last Post Ceremony and an immersive experience of the trench conditions suffered by soldiers during the Great War.

"It's a really humbling experience, to understand more of the magnitude of the effects of war," said Michael Pedley, Player Development Coach at Newcastle United. "You could visibly see that the players were a bit like, 'wow, this is huge.'

"We've played a variety of opposition, international but also players and teams that we wouldn't normally play in a games programme. I couldn't be prouder of the boys the way they equipped themselves throughout the tournament."