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SIDELINES TO STADIUM: Equalizing the Playing Field of Football for Marginalized Youths from Urban Communities in Nepal (Project S2S)


From the Sidelines to the Stadium —where talent meets opportunity.

Across Kathmandu, Kaski and Bara districts, a revolution is kicking off.  The project is turning dreams into reality by giving marginalised youth the chance to step from informal play into professional football— rewriting futures, breaking barriers, challenging stereotypes along the way, and embedding gender safeguarding across the game.”

This is not just about the game. It is about empowerment, opportunity, and lasting change—both on and off the pitch.
The whistle is about to blow. Are you ready to play your part?

 

Sidelines to Stadium project
© European Union, 2026

Nepal’s rapid urbanisation has pushed nearly half of its urban population into informal settlements, where young people face layered exclusion—economic hardship, social stigma, and zero access to structured sports. Football, a game meant to transcend boundaries, remains out of reach for these youths. Makeshift rag balls, cramped alleys, and shouts of "outsider!" on public fields reinforce a harsh truth: the pitch is not for them.

For girls, the barriers are even greater—gender norms confine them to the sidelines, their potential buried under societal expectations. Meanwhile, Nepal’s football sector lacks gender safeguarding policies; so, for those who overcome barriers and break through into the sport, they are left without institutional protection.”

The exclusion of marginalised urban youth from football is not accidental—it is structural: economic barriers, infrastructural deprivation, social stigma, gender discrimination, and institutional gaps. Without intervention, the cycle continues: raw talent remains hidden, wasted, and forgotten.

This project is a transformative football-focused empowerment initiative designed to break down systemic barriers and create lasting opportunities for marginalised urban youth in Kathmandu, Kaski, and Bara.

Led by Child Nepal in partnership with Protection Nepal and United Community Nepal (UniCoN), and funded by the European Union (EU), this project uses football as a catalyst for social change, ensuring that talent—regardless of background—gets its chance to shine.

 


The project is designed to be delivered through three strategic pillars:
•    Capacity Development: Turning Potential into Skill
Goal: Train 900 marginalised urban youths (50% female) in a structured football programme, developing technical, tactical, and physical competence alongside life skills like discipline, teamwork, and leadership through grassroots skills development; football theory, sports education & science; and advanced position-specific training.

•    Employability Integration: From Alleys to Professional Pathways
Goal: Open doors to Nepal’s football sector by creating direct links between trained youth and professional clubs through talent showcase events (friendly matches, championships, player auctions); Scouting sessions with club representatives; formal recruitment mechanisms (contracts, academy placements).

•    Institutional Reform: Safeguarding the Future of Football
Goal: Develop, promote and facilitate the adoption of Nepal’s first Gender Safeguarding Policy for football, ensuring protection and equality for all athletes through multi-stakeholder policy drafting; sensitisation workshops for clubs and institutions; formal adoption by 20 football clubs.

By developing skills, creating pathways, and reforming institutions, the project will not just train players—it rewrites the rules of the game as marginalised youth step from alleys to stadiums; girls claim their rightful place on the field; Nepal’s football sector becomes inclusive, professional, and safe.
When the final whistle blows, the field will no longer be divided by privilege—just by talent.