20 January 2022, the Intercultural Cities of Limassol, Haifa, and Ioannina, supported by the Intercultural Cities programme of the Council of Europe, published a Policy Brief based on joint work during 2021 on unlocking the potential of sports for intercultural inclusion, in terms both of policy and practice. The policy brief concludes that sports have a great ability to mobilise young people, to break any boundary and organise them towards a common goal. The brief also states that although sport has been seen and recognised as one of the main inclusion drivers, its potential is far from realised in local government.
In 2021, the municipalities of Haifa (Israel), Ioannina (Greece) and Limassol (Cyprus) were awarded an inter-city grant by the Intercultural Cities programme to work on the topic of youth, sports and inclusion. During the project the three municipalities carried out sports activities with youth in the three cities, including joint activities and instructions for those who were new to the sport.