The DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga has launched its “Bundesliga Common Ground” project in association with local partners and communities, renovating and revitalising football pitches around the world to offer more young people the opportunity to play and enjoy football.

Together with children and young people from the neighbourhood, numerous partners and celebrity guests, the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga has opened a renovated public football pitch in Berlin’s Carl-von-Ossietzky-Park. The refurbished pitch in the inner-city neighbourhood of Moabit will give young people the chance to play football and enjoy sport together.

Together with children and young people from the neighbourhood, the DFL has opened a renovated public football pitch in the Moabit neighbourhood of Berlin. - Cathrin Mueller/Bundesliga/Bundesliga Collection via Getty Images

The public football pitch was opened as part of the “Bundesliga Common Ground” project, which cooperates with local communities and partner companies to renovate sports grounds. In the past few weeks, similar pitches have been transformed in a similar way around the world, including in Lagos (Nigeria), Mexico City (Mexico), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and New York (USA) – more are to follow in other countries during the 2022/23 season and beyond.

Street football and musical entertainment

The opening of the Berlin pitch centred on a street football tournament played by local children and young people as well as invited guests. Former Bundesliga stars Claudio Pizarro and Paulo Sergio played a particular role. The two members of the DFL’s “Bundesliga Legends Network” took the opportunity to play a few minutes on the freshly renovated football pitch in the “Bundesliga Common Ground” design – much to the delight of the many spectators. The programme included a screening of Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches, eFootball matches using on-site consoles, and various football stations such as a header practice stand, a goal wall and football tennis. The display of the Bundesliga trophy and performances by up-and-coming artists also delighted the young audience.

“Public football pitches are magical places. We all started there originally, and I am delighted that children all over the world are still scoring their first goals on pitches like these,” said Claudio Pizarro, who played 490 matches and scored 197 goals in the Bundesliga. “It’s great that ‘Bundesliga Common Ground’ is giving such pitches around the world a new lease on life.”

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The football pitch in Berlin’s Mitte district, like its counterparts around the globe, is to be a go-to place for young people from the area. The freely accessible playing court gives Berliners the chance to play football together, and also serves as a venue for local events such as sports coaching clinics and street football tournaments.

Peer Naubert, Chief Marketing Officer of Bundesliga International, says: “With ‘Bundesliga Common Ground’, we want to get young people excited about playing sport. The renovated football pitches provide spaces to get children and young people playing football and to promote values such as team spirit and fair play via organised tournaments.”