Today, 16 teams will compete in a total of 33 matches for 2024 United Euro Cup in Nyon, Switzerland. These teams represent their respective national football associations including Ireland, Spain and Ukraine.
This year Ireland will look to go one better than 2023, when they finished runner-up, and top scorer Tareq Altorok – a Palestinian-born refugee – is representing Ireland for the third year in a row.
Altorok, came to Ireland at the age of 15 as an unaccompanied minor and began playing football with SARI [Sports against racism Ireland]. He has since played for Newbridge, Cabinteely and now Bluebell and is in his final year of structural engineering in TUD [Technological University Dublin].
Ahead of the tournament, he emphasised how important football has been to him when trying to settle in a new country.
“There were a lot of things that was going on back then when I was young, and I didn’t have the support of my family close to me. So football built my confidence and help me to to learn English, my English wasn’t the best,” he said.
“Integrating with different people, different cultures, like, it gave me confidence in myself, and gave me relief.
“All the stress leaves my head when I play football because you enjoying your time, playing with your mates, and it gave me the opportunity to flourish as an individual.”
Altorok said that being part of a community like the Unity Euro Cup has helped him understand and overcome the mental challenges he’s faced in recent years, particularly as the war in his homeland of Gaza continues.
“I have four siblings back at home and my sister-in-law, she was killed. It was a tough time for me to recover, but going through all these difficulties and the hardship, football brings people together and encourages them to keep going,” he said.
“Sometimes in life, things happen and you can’t change it. So what we can do is pray for them, stay strong and help people that are going through these obstacles.”
Amidati Karimu, is one of three female players on the Ireland team.
Karimu’s parents fled the Ivory Coast and she is the first Irish born members of her family. There are eight people in her family and Kamiru credits her siblings with getting her into football.
“When we were younger, my siblings would always be getting ready for training and going down with my dad, getting new boots and gear, so I’d actually get jealous,” she said.
“So one day when I was seven, I asked my dad if I could join as well and I started on my local team and from there, I just kept going up and up.”
Karimu has had trials for Ireland and played for the diversity team in SARI and that helped her love for football grow.
“I was playing with different types of people from different backgrounds and people with lower income housing,” she said.
“So I used to volunteer and help coach the kids. And then, someone just told me that I could do trials to represent Ireland in Switzerland. I went down and really enjoyed myself. And then luckily, I made the team.”
Karimu studies biomedical science in TUD and is going to graduate next month and, like Altorok, she credits football with helping her be herself to the fullest extent.
“I’d be someone with low confidence and quite quiet and reserved. It’s helped me branch out and be able to like speak with other people, and it gave me that sense of community, and it made me feel very welcome,” she said.
“Playing in Ireland and being that little bit different. It definitely like it feels like home, like it feels like a comfort sport, where I can just be myself and express it myself.”
Jonathan Tormey, Unity Euro Cup head coach and Dublin City Council sports officer, hopes that the tournaments growth will help improve the communication and relationship between Irish people and immigrants.
“If you sit down with them and listen to them and hear what they have to say I think it will change the way people think. They just want a life for themselves,” he said.
“They want a life for themselves and their families and they’ve chosen Ireland, and they’ve settled in Ireland.
“Playing football has had a huge influence on that. Going to represent Ireland in the Unity Cup has had a huge influence on that.
“And, I believe these young lads and young girls will impact this country going forward. They’re here to be doctors, they’re here to be engineers, they’re here to study.
“They’re not here just to do nothing, and if you sit down and speak to them. I think if people hear their stories, it will change the way people will think.”