In disaster areas, war zones and urban wastelands, football keeps humanity alive. That’s what Photographer Peter Dench found in his travels as he attempted to show the game is alive and well despite the most demanding of circumstances.
A football team sing inspirational songs from the terraces of the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia. The stadium is also the headquarters of the Liberian Football Association. After over a decade of civil war, football is helping bring communities back together. Copyright Peter DenchFans watch a league three match from the stands of the Antoinette Tubman Stadium. Copyright Peter Dench
War scars: Children play football in front of a burnt out building in the Liberian capital Monrovia. Copyright Peter Dench
A decade of Civil war decimated much of Liberia in West Africa. But Dench found that football, if not exactly flourishing, is still having a vital role to play in the well being of a people at its lowest ebb.
Players from LASA, the Liberia Amputee Sports Association football team, warm up before a match in Monrovia. Almost all of the players are victims of the genocidal war that wrecked the nation. Players who used to fight against each other now play on the same side. Copyright Peter DenchAn amputee exercises on a pitch modified for amputee matches. The goal is half the size of the orthodox version. Copyright Peter Dench
The outskirts of Colombia’s capital Bogota presented Dench with more desperate scenes of poverty, but where children still gathered in the shadows of the slums to play matches, with the aim to keep them playing long enough that they’d stay out of the street gangs and away from trouble.
Children on the Goals For a Better Life football programme train on a pitch at the foot of a slum on the outskirts of Bogota. Run by the Colombianitos charity, it aims to use children’s passion for football to keep them in school and away from street gangs. Copyright Peter DenchA young girl plays next to a water logged football pitch in her neighbourhood situated just outside the Colombian coastal city of Cartagena. The Goals For a Better Life programme aims to use football as a focus to keep kids away from gangs and prostitution rings. Copyright Peter DenchChildren train on a pitch at the foot of a slum on the outskirts of Colombian capital Bogota. Copyright Peter Dench
And in Sao Paolo, Brazil, a similar scheme, aimed at children with low self esteem, provides beach football, albeit sandwiched between derelict and defaced buildings, and something more positive to take part in.
Brazilian kids play beach football at the EPROCAD centre in Sao Paulo. Football is used to transform children with low self esteem and negative perception into critical proactive citizens. Copyright Peter Dench
Football, as Peter Dench discovered, brings nations together and promotes unity. It encourages equality and generates pride and self-belief.
“It has the power to heal and to help, to motivate, to give freedom to dreams and empower a generation,” he says.
The son of female FIFA accredited referee Fatou Gaye, plays football on the roof of their home in the Senegalese capital Dakar. Copyright Peter Dench
“There are millions of people playing the game or helping it flourish who find that football brings a positive dimension to their lives.”
Football’s Hidden Story illustrates perfectly the positive impact football has had on communities worldwide.
Match tactics are displayed on the wall of one of the changing rooms at the national Sylvio Cator Stadium in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In 1974 Haiti won a place at the World Cup Finals. 33 revolutionary years later the impoverished country’s under 17 team played at the FIFA U-17 World Cup Finals in South Korea. Copyright Peter Dench
In a world far removed from the billionaire owned clubs and their multi million pound players, Peter Dench’s emotive pictures capture it all.
Football’s Hidden Story by Peter Dench is available to buy online from Fistful of Books.
A young man in socks practices his football skills on the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Copyright Peter DenchHaitian football fans watch the national under 17 team achieve victory over older boys playing for the USA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. The poster in the background shows the team that qualified for the 1974 World Cup Finals. Copyright Peter DenchA fenced soccer pitch provides a safe oasis for kids being coached on the Spirit of Soccer programme in Iraq. Spirit of Soccer is a grassroots children’s charity founded by soccer coach Scott Lee that aims to reduce child casualties by landmines and explosive remnants of war. Copyright Peter DenchChildren in Pokhara, Nepal play football outside an orphanage. At least 5000 children in Nepal live a high risk life on the streets. Football provides an opportunity to build friendships. Copyright Peter DenchOrange peel scattered on the hill overlooking a football stadium in Pokhara, Nepal. Copyright Peter Dench
