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Welcome to the SOAS 'Beyond Borders' official website.

We at SOAS believe in the transformative and binding nature of football. Cross cultural exchange between east and west, North and South via the medium of this wonderful sport has been proven to be possible by our tireless endeavours

 Despite the periodic tension at an international level particularly between the East and the West, football has the power to highlight human commonalities between different societies irrespective of nationality, belief or race.

Last year we embarked on our first quest which took us to the middle east. A region of the world that is often misunderstood by us here in the west. However friendships were created in the most unlikely areas of the globe and the key factor was a a ball and four posts. From rural eastern Turkey to cosmopolitan Beirut we left a feelings of goodwill and unity


Aspiring film-makers Wil Stewart and Roland Hutchinson made a documentary about the tour which captured the mood of the trip.
The trip was only a half of the endeavour, and before we even bought the tickets we spent months on end raising money. We reached our £14,000 target before the 1st September. Check out the 'Photo Gallery' to look at photos from the Inter-London Football tournament and SOAS End of Year Ball which were instrumental in raising the bulk of the money . Photos can also be found of some of the team members with Jon Snow outside the Channel 4 studios in the new tour kits sponsored by 'Dimes' (www.dimes.com.tr).
 
The tour group  consisted of 18 members, which included 15 Brits, two Turks and a Fin! Check out the 'Meet the Team' section to find out more about the players and their personal anticipations of the tour. Lastly there was ongoing blogs from team captain Jasper Kain, which can be found in the 'Captain's Log' section, the Players that make up the touring SOAS football team will be taking it in turns to update the 'Player's Corner', outlining their thoughts, feelings, highs and lows, as felt throughout the tour, and for some laughter, our Finnish friend Tomi Lounio (the self-defined comedian of the group!) was  writing from Helsinki with his musings towards the trip, which can be found in the 'Tomi's Talk' section. 
 
ALL EYES TURN TO AFRICA

Due to the unprecedented success of the tour to Turkey, Syria and Lebbanon, SOAS first IX captain for 2009/2010 Toib Olomowewe has decided to plan a tour of West Africa (Nigeria and Ghana). This time the premise of the Tour is championing development through education and exchange. Development, in itself is the work of progress. Progressing to solutions of existing problems. At the turn of the century, huge potential in Africa was realised by organisation like the UN  and various organisations who launched programmes to realise these potentials.

However very little has changed within a decade. What can "Beyond Borders" do? We believe that as students it is our job to open up dialogue and communication with the African leaders of tommorow and facilitate cultual understanding. We realise that we do not have the clout or power of organisations like the UN, nevertheless we have the vision. By playing football, conversing and breaking bread with those Africans of the same generation as us, tommorows leaders and developers can have a better understanding of their foreign counterparts.