In Sweden, crime prevention is spelled “football”

Since 2006, so-called night-time football has given some of Sweden's most vulnerable young people somewhere to go after dark. In areas identified by the police as at high risk of crime and gang recruitment, boys and girls aged 13 to 25 can play football in sports halls every Friday from around 19.00 to midnight, and in some places Saturdays too. The concept is offered by the Goodsport Foundation for free, in collaboration with local clubs and municipalities. It takes advantage of the unique value of sports in fostering integration, preventing crime, and improving young people's health. Engaged locals with strong social connections to youth in the area play a central role as well by building relationships with the young people and monitoring the venues. Some clubs even cooperate with local security guards and police to keep the halls safe. Patrik Asplund, 54, is the CEO of Goodsport and came up with the idea 20 years ago after visiting Charlton Athletic in England. They ran a similar scheme called Sunday Football, financed by the local police. “I thought, damn, that's not such a bad idea,” Asplund told us. His own past experiences in criminal and far-right groups taught him the value of social outreach. Sunday Football ran during the day, but Asplund noticed a problem specific to Stockholm: most sports halls closed by 21.30, and young people often vandalised them trying to break in to play. So instead, he proposed football at night. Why football? “The role that sport seems to offer is to be able to bring together groups that would not otherwise be connected,” Simon Darnell, professor of sport for development and peace at the University of Toronto, told us. Programmes like Fight for Peace (combat sports) and Peace Players (basketball) pursue similar goals around the globe. Art, music, and dance can also cross cultural boundaries, but football's scale and reach is what sets it apart, even from other sports, Darnell argued. “That doesn't mean football is going to solve all of our problems, but there's something kind of natural about football as a cross-cultural form,” he said. “You can go anywhere in the world and see kids kicking a ball. There's something quite powerful about that if we're willing to think about it as something that binds our common humanity.” Seven weeks of games For Issa Saliba, who organises night-time football in Västerort, north-east of Stockholm, football itself is almost beside the point. “We aren't trying to recruit them to play competitively. It's just about making the area where we operate safer and bringing the local youth together under one umbrella,” he told us. Around 50 young people show up on an average night, roughly half of them from the at-risk group the organisers target. “We know that most of the kids who show up aren't in school, maybe they've dropped out, or they're unemployed. They don't necessarily have to be selling drugs, but that step becomes a very real possibility given the backgrounds they come from,” Saliba said. Night-time football arrived in Västerort in 2016, with help from Asplund. But it only runs during the dark months – Grimsta Games is the summer version, now in its second year and running Wednesday to Friday, morning to evening, between 24 June and 7 August. Around 350 kids aged 8 to 15 show up daily. Fourteen-year-olds Mikael Nasel and Salmal Hersi are trying it for the first time this year. Both already play for clubs, but say they enjoy meeting new people and learning from other strong players during the summer holidays. “I would probably just have been at home eating, or playing football with my friends anyway,” Nasel said. “Football is like rehab. Some play football to calm down. I play it no matter if I'm angry or happy. It just makes me even happier,” Hersi added. Results that speak Night-time football has only gained momentum since it started, running in more than 100 locations in Sweden, according to Asplund. His foundation was recognised by the Royal Family in 2019, and the Swedish government allocated more than €27 million over a three-year period to support activities like night‑time football. Between 2015 and 2016, police in Östergötland measured a 49% drop in reported crimes during night‑football hours. The following year, reported crime in Hageby, Norrköping, fell by 46% during night‑football hours, according to Goodsport. It's difficult to say for certain whether this can be fully attributed to the programme, but for organisers, the results speak for themselves. Issa Saliba has seen fewer conflicts and break-ins at the local club since launching night-time football. “There has been less vandalism in the sports hall, and they have stopped trying to break into the kiosk. So, either they are playing with us, or they don't dare to hang out here anymore because they don't want to get caught. It can also be both,” he said.