Key mission

Building a youth sports movement to use the influence of football to facilitate global integration through building sustainable practices which create dialogue and build resilient individuals, families and communities.

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Since its launch and under the patronage of many Royal Families, players, clubs and governments from around the world, Football for Peace is at the forefront of using football as a force for good. Our aim is to intervene and raise awareness of the world’s most pressing issues by combining community‐based activity with diplomatic impact.

Football for Peace understands the power of the universal language of football and we deploy this through soft‐power activities to achieve success at individual, community and national levels.

Welcome Letter

As co-founders of Football for Peace, it gives us both great pleasure to invite you to our movement and formally Football for Peace.

Both of us feel we are living in a world which has never been so connected, but yet feels so divided and unbalanced with poverty, inequality, climate, enviromnetal degradation, prosperity, injustice and lack of peace.

Coming as we do from humble upbringings, we understand the fear that comes from isolation, rejection and the unknown. We both relate to young people and their families' struggles.

Through football our aim is to renew hope, educate, build confidence and find peace in the midst of local and global hardship. As professional athletes, we consider football to have a unique capacity to reach far beyond ethic, religious or social differences and challenge divisive narratives.

We also know how dialogue empowers us as humans. Our ambition, therefore, has always been to combine football with the power of dialogue and to build a movement of young people able to bring peace one game at a time.

We invite you to join us and the global community, to foster dialouge and propel this unique movement across the world.

Kind Regards,

Elias Figueroa
Football for Peace
Co-founder
& Fifa 100 Greatest Players of All Time

Kashif Siddiqi
Football for Peace
Co-founder
& International Footballer

Elias Figueroa

Elías Ricardo Figueroa Brander is a former Chilean football player known in South America as "Don" Elias as a sign of respect, and is one of FIFA's 100 greatest players of all time and co-founder of Football for Peace.

He is widely regarded across the world as Chile's greatest footballer of all time, as well as one of the greatest defenders of all time. The statistical data of the Brazilian Football Championship shows Elias to be the best foreign player, playing in the league in the twentieth century.

He is a two time Champion of the Brazilian National... Championship, winner of 3 Silver Balls as the best defender of the year and 2 Gold Balls (1972 and 1976) for the best player of the year, playing alongside footballing icons such as Rivellino, Jairizinho , Tostao, Pelé and many others in 5 years playing at Sport Club Internacional from Porto Alegre, in Brazil.

He was also awarded the South American Footballer of the Year three times in a row by Venezuelan newspaper El Mundo in 1974, 1975 and 1976. He was named Best Player in Uruguay in 1967 and 1968, and Best Player in Chile in 1977 and 1978. After retiring, he was named one of the world's 125 best living soccer players by Pelé in 2004, and was also voted 8th best South American and 37th best player in the world of the 20th Century by the IFFHS in 1999.

Figueroa played for several clubs during his long career, notably his hometown club Santiago Wanderers, Brazilian club Internacional and Uruguayan club Peñarol. He also represented Chile 47 times, appearing in three FIFA World Cups, in 1966, 1974, and 1982. Figueroa was noted for his elegant style of play, his composure in the centre of defence and his ability to cut out opposition attacks and immediately launch counterattacks from the back with his passing.

He was also praised throughout his career for being a gentleman on and off the pitch. Don Elias is also has been a huge philanthropist of the pitch and in 2006 Elias established Futbol Por La Paz (Football for Peace) at the UN with the late Kofi Annan. During the same time he initiated The Gol Iluminado Corporacion’ which has evolved to become a dynamic and prolific force for good providing Education through Sport to families and children in need and at risk from harm. Recognised by world leaders, organisations and individuals for their contribution to Sport for Development.

Kash Siddiqi

Since making a debut on the international circuit and playing in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Qualifiers, Kash Siddiqi has become known to many as South Asia’s philanthropic football globetrotter. His contribution on and off the field has led him to have been invited to play in the most militarised zones in the world, Kashmir, India, making him the first British Asian to have represented the Pakistani national team and to play in the Indian part of conflicted Kashmir. He is also one of a handful of British South Asians to have made it in the professional ranks in the UK.... His journey in sport is one of many travelled routes and philanthropic accomplishments.

In 2013, he became only one of eleven British South Asians to have been signed by an English Professional League Club. He was also the first British South Asian to have been awarded a scholarship for soccer in the USA and play professional football in Europe, North America and the Middle East. Giving Kash a very strong USP – which he has used to give back and bridge gaps for underrepresented communities both locally and internationally.

His achievements both on and off the pitch through charitable work to-date are all credited to his mother and faith in God. In 2011, he founded the Kashif Siddiqi Foundation and in 2013, co-founded the Football for Peace, Kash has become renowned for his humanitarian efforts and has been recognised for his goodwill work by HRH The Duke of Cambridge – Prince William, Former Prime Minister David Cameron, His Highness Prince Ali of Jordan, Pope Francis and the United Nations. In 2013, he was inaugurated as a Champion of Peace, by Peace and Sport- under the High Patronage of His Highness Prince Albert II for his global charitable ventures.in 2016, Kash was invited to open a press conference by the poticital of vatican on sport at the service of humanity.

In 2017 he was the Winner of Power Brands Global Award as growing philanthropic athlete. He was further honoured in 2019 at 9th Annual Better World Awards in Monte Carlo as ‘Humanitarian Athlete of the Year Award’. In the same year he was invited to the 74th United Nations General Assembly in NYC to discuss the power of football being used as a force for good.

It is imperative for all of us to continue the development and growth of football around the world. Football for Peace is a great example of sports diplomacy.

HRH Prince Ali Bin Hussein of Jordan