Encounters on the Field: Observations of the Football-3-Halves Festival at the Euro Cup 2016

Abstract

This article seeks to contribute to debate about sport for social development. The purpose is to analyze the Football3 methodology and the de-structuring of delegations at a festival of Streetfootballworld during the Euro 2016 in France. Different to other scenarios where girls and boys participate separately and where delegations take part as national squads, this festival introduced a random system. Ethnographic work inspired by the sociology of Erving Goffman focused on encounters and interactions to observe how participants behaved in defining the rules with unknown colleagues, implementing and evaluating them. The attention paid to theseframesreflected different reactions. Whilst a general attitude of cooperation was perceived, different meanings of girls’ participation and competitive aspects were identified. We argue that the recognition of perceptions of recipients may allow more inclusive schemes for festivals and programs.