FC Barcelona veterans to help refugees in Greece

Madrid, Nov 15: Spanish football giants FC Barcelona have announced that a group of the club's former players are going to help organise a day of solidarity with refugees in Greece.

The event, which is jointly organised by the United Nations' refugee charity, ACNUR and Greek football club, Pas Giannina, will be held on November 18 in the town of Ioannina, which is in the northwest of Greece, reports Xinhua.

The aim of the event is to collect funds and recognize the efforts of the Greek population, in helping the tens of thousands of refugees who have fled the conflicts in Syria and Iraq and who are now housed in refugee camps in their country.

Members of the Barca Players Association (BPA) including former footballers such as Gica Popescu, Jari Litmanen, Juan Carlos Rodriguez and Meho Kodro, will visit the Katsikas refugee camp in Ioannina and the players will hold football clinics for children in 6 camps in the region before ending the day with a charity football game against the veterans of PAS Giannnia.

The FC Barcelona website (www.fcbarcelona.com) said on Monday that the initiative is to draw attention to the "difficulties faced by thousands of men, women and children with international protection needs in Greece who have arrived to the country during the last months on risky crossings across the Mediterranean, many of whom are waiting to be relocated in other European Union countries."

The club also highlighted that the local Greek population have "every day shown their solidarity and contributed in an exemplary way."

IANS