Diversity as an opportunity – FC Internationale Berlin
From the beginning of our foundation in the 1980 we agreed on something: this will not pay the players and will be a club for everyone. From the start we found people from different nationalities, something that in the 80s was unusual.
The name FC Internationale emerged because of a lot of students compete in the University league under the name of “International Students”. For Easter they celebrated the legendary Tournaments for the peace. Here we tried to represent the most diverse Berlin possible.
On sports, was helpful too the first woman coach in a men team on Landesliga, Mirjana Kovacev, born in Serbi. On the decade of the 90s, they started the first “NO RACISM” kits, that continue until this day. In the trainings we use kits with “Inter gegen rechts”. The club had always a clear posture against the extremist groups of far right and neo-Nazis, that in that time were strongly represented on the stadiums of the Bundesliga.
The first women team was created on 1981, on the 90s was created a community of players with the SG Solidarity, from the one that emerged the name of the team “International Solidarity”. The girls division was founded on the year 2000, and on the 06 the U12 of the girls (D Mädchen) were Champions of Berlin and the cup.
On the middle of the 2000 they were men and women from more than 35 different nationalities on the Club. FC Internationale was the meeting point from the program “Integration through the Sport”. From the beginning were accepted refugees from the old Yugoslavia. To Mirjana Kovacev followed the Bosnian Darko Vojnovic and later Erkan Celik from Turkey. Today the Coach of the first team is a Chilean. Women had been coached since years for Austrians. The origin never played a role, only the athletic and human knowledge. Successful players came for example from Bosnia, Turkey, or Sweden.
Today the number has grown up to 1350, half of them are kids and young people. Today the Club has members of 70 different nationalities. The name is program and commitment. A tool for help is the Social Fund from Inter, in which people with more resources contribute to help those kids and youngsters that are in need.
The clear posture against the racism and the opportunity to participate has been different times rewarded. The media inform about the work of the club too. More than 25 referees between 13- and 67-years old work for the club. In addition, a lot of cooperations exist with schools, Südkreuz network, people with disabilities of Berlin workshops, Football and Society network of Berlin, from the one we are cofounder and the Alliance against Antisemitism.
The club is open to new topics. In 2021 received the first certification of sustainability that has been awarded to an amateur club. In January 2023 the Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeiner give us the “Big Star of Sport” (Großen Stern) to the president of the club, the one that at the same time give him a shirt with the number 1,5 grades on the back.
FC Internationale shows commitment against Antisemitism and Racism (NO RACISM) and is committed with the social and ecologic sustainability. The Club has been faithful to these foundational ideals, that includes staying as an amateur club.
The FC Internationale believes that sport success and social coexistence are not exclusive, but the opposite. The club wants and will continue always to support the promotion of football, with a healthy community, supportive and with a high level of social commitment. Promised!
