Sport Scores: The costs and benefits of sport for crime reduction
Message from EDWIN MOSES, Chairman, Laureus World SPorts Academy
Winning medals may be what everyone talks about, but in reality it’s only one per cent of sport’s value. It’s the other 99 per cent that really matters. Having been lucky enough to have been a professional sportsman I know how sport gave me structure and direction, touching on almost every element of how I live my life from the relationships I’ve built and the communities of which I’ve been part to my perception of morality and the motivation that drives me.
And I see this in the work we do as Laureus across the world. I’ve visited the Laureus supported PeacePlayers International project in the Middle East seeing first hand that sport, as an intervention to address social barriers and distrust created by long standing conflicts, can deliver long term impact.
I’ve been to the football project Bola pra Frente in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, seeing first hand that sport, as an intervention to address social and economic exclusion can genuinely change lives. And by changing lives I don’t just mean making people fitter or giving them a short term distraction. I mean putting those it touches on the right course for a successful life that allows them to become a real value to society.
This report, I believe, is further evidence to support my instincts about the economic value of sport as a tool for social change. We want to highlight exactly how sport
is changing the lives of young people and communities worldwide and the returns this generates for society, so that we can build a compelling case for the social returns of sport that engages governments and other funders to invest in sport as a multi-dimensional tool for social change.
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