Invitation for Contest to join to “Football For Friendship” UEFA EURO 2020 News Bureau

May 19 – June 04, 2021

UEFA EURO 2020 News Bureau is an initiative of the international children’s social program of GAZPROM “Football for Friendship”. The News Bureau is intended to become an information center for millions of children and teenagers in the world.
According to the results of the competitive selection, the Bureau will include 12 Young Journalists in each of the 11 cities of UEFA EURO 2020. They will attend UEFA EURO 2020 matches and cover them from the perspective of the nine values of the Football for Friendship Program: friendship, equality, justice, health, peace, loyalty, victory, tradition, honor.
In order to take a responsible approach to their mission during the June 2021 Young Journalists will be trained at the School of Nine Values of the Football for Friendship Program under the guidance of the coaching Program. 6 online lessons of 45 minutes will reveal the content of the nine values that are shared and supported by all participants of the Program. The lessons will help the participants to master the skills of mobile journalism which is a current trend in the development of the sports media industry. The Young Journalists’ work will be supported by professional journalists of the leading media of the cities hosting UEFA EURO 2020. The publications of Young journalists will be posted in the official accounts of the Football for Friendship Program.
The materials prepared by the Young Journalists will be selected through a competitive selection process with the participation of an international jury consisting of representatives of international media. In each city, the best Young Journalist will be selected to be part of the 11 participants in the award of the player who scored the best goal of UEFA EURO 2020.

• Invitation for Students of Young Journalists Schools, Children Press Centres, Secondary Schools, Children Journalist Associations, Management of Journalist Department of Universities, Sport and Charitable Organizations.
• Organizers: The Organizing Committee of the international children’s social program of GAZPROM “Football for Friendship” with the participation of international media.
• Official site of the contest: https://footballforfriendship.com/
• The aim of the competition is to find talented Young journalists, support their interest in sports journalism and develop journalistic skills.
• Terms and Conditions: Free Participation,
May 19 – June 04, 2021.
May 19 – June 02, 2021 inclusive is acceptance of competitive works.
June 04, 2021 – summing up the results of the competition and announcing the winners
• The official language of the contest: English.
• Participants of the competition: Children 12-14 years old from the countries of the UEFA EURO 2020 European Football Championship.

Please note:
• Young Journalists are ensured to attend the games of the UEFA EURO 2020 in their own cities;
• Each Young Journalist should be accompanied by an adult during UEFA EURO 2020 games.
• Organizers provide tickets to the games for Young Journalists and accompanying adults free of charge, but do not cover travel and accommodation expenses for non-resident participants.

Requirements for participants:
• Age requirements: 12-14 years old (date of birth – from May 13, 2006 to May 13, 2009)
• Strong interest and knowledge in football;
• Skills in preparing texts/taking photos and videos on a mobile phone;
• Skills in the account’s promotion in social media
• English level: advanced

The procedure of the competition.
• The competition is held in one correspondence stage.
In the period from May 19 to June 02 inclusive:
• The contestants are supposed to fill out the application form and complete the competition task in English according to the requirements listed above.
• The completed application form and the completed competition task are sent by e-mail to the organizing committee of the competition euro2020contest@footballforfriendship.com
In the period from June 02 to June 04, 2021 inclusive:
• The competition jury evaluates the submitted entries and selects the winners of the competition in each host city of UEFA EURO 2020.
04 June 2021:
• The names of the winners are published on the official site of the contest.
• Winners are additionally notified of their victory by notifying the organizing committee by e-mail or by phone.
Please note: the works completed are not sent back and not reviewed.
The competition task
The competition task includes writing of the essay “Football is more than just a game!” and two news articles “Towards the UEFA EURO 2020”.
General requirements for the competition task
• The competition task is performed in English.
• The competition task is carried out in strict accordance with the requirements for content and design.
• The Organizing Committee reserves the right to reject works that do not meet the requirements for content and design.

Requirements for the preparation of the essay “Football is more than just a game!”
• In his essay the contestant offers an independent discussion about why football is more than a game, what role football plays in people’s lives, what gives football to people, what role it plays in their lives, why people love football.
• The essay is written in English.
• The text size is not more than 2000 characters with spaces.
• The competition task must be performed independently, reflect the author’s point of view and be an original material that has never been published before.
• The text of the essay should be divided into paragraphs according to the logic of the narrative.

Requirements for the preparation of 2 news articles ” Towards UEFA EURO 2020»
• Each news article should include a striking fact and / or a significant figure. The text size is not less than 200 and not more than 500 characters with spaces.
• Each news article must have a headline.
• An illustration (photo) is required for each news article. The photo should include a bright and revealing episode that corresponds to the content of the news. The photo must be taken by the author. The photo size is at least 1024 x 512 px.
• Every news item should be dedicated to the preparation of the host city of UEFA EURO 2020 from where the contestant is for the UEFA EURO 2020 European Football Championship.
• News articles should not be of the same type in content. Each news article should reflect different facts and events of the city’s preparation for the UEFA EURO 2020 European Football Championship.

Requirements for the design of the competition task for submission to the organizing committee.
• The competition task is sent in the form of a completed form for doing the competition task. The file is sent in docx format. The completed forms of the contest entries in pdf format are not accepted.
• Illustrations (photos) for each news item are sent separately in jpg or jpeg format. To identify the news text the names of the photo files must include the numbers1,2,3: the first news article is photo 1, the second news is photo 2, the third news is photo 3.
• The Word file in the upper part must contain the name of the contestant, the country and city of residence as well as the name and contact details of the adult (e-mail, mobile phone) responsible for the child.
• The texts of the competition tasks are placed according to the form of the competition task.
• For the design of essay and news texts please use the Calibri font, size 11, line spacing 1.15.

Criteria for evaluating the competitive task.

1. Essay “Football is more than just a game!”
• match with the genre of essays in journalism
• compliance with the topic stated in the competition task
• the degree of disclosure of the topic
• integrity and completeness of the text
• clear and understandable logic in the presentation of the material

2. 2 news “Towards UEFA EURO 2020”
For each news item:
• match with the news genre in journalism
• clear and informative title
• brightness, the significance of the selected facts
• the degree of informative content of the text
• illustrative value of the illustration

International jury.
The jury consists of professional journalists and editors of the leading media outlets of the countries hosting UEFA EURO 2020.

The order of evaluation of the competition task.
• The assessment is carried out according to the point method.
• For each criterion, points are awarded from 0 to 30, where 0 is the non-compliance with the stated criterion, 30 is the maximum compliance.
• The points awarded for each criterion are added together to form a total score.
• Based on the results of the evaluation, a report is drawn up containing a point rating of the work.
• In the case of the same number of points, an additional independent examination is carried out.

Selection of the winner of the competitive selection of Young journalists
• In each city of UEFA EURO 2020, 12 winners are determined, who are awarded the status of a Young Journalist of the International Children’s News Bureau.
• The 12 winners will include the authors of the contest entries with the highest number of points and positions from 1 to 12 inclusive in the protocol with the rating of the contest entries.
• The winners ‘ entries will be published in the official accounts of Gazprom’s international children’s social program Football for Friendship.

Email-address for sending the form: euro2020contest@footballforfriendship.com