Armed Forces From Around the World Meet On The Gulf Coast

Armed Forces from around the world are meeting this week in Biloxi, trading the battlefield for the soccer field. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports.

It’s the opening game of the 5th World Military Women’s Soccer Championship and the teams from Germany and the United States have just taken the field at Biloxi High School’s stadium. They are two of the seven teams, teams like South Korea and Brazil, who will spend this week competing in the International Military Sports Council tournament. The whole goal of the tournament is to bring friendship through sport says Suba Saty, the Armed Forces Sports Secretariat,

“It’s bringing these military members from all different cultures and backgrounds onto the sports field. So this is a wonderful opportunity to open up dialogue with sometimes these hard to reach countries.”

131 nations are members of the International Military Sports Council, including North Korea and Iran, and men’s and women’s tournaments are held across the world in a variety of different sports. Keesler Air Force Base is hosting the teams for this women’s soccer tournament. Colonel Marginean from Romanian says you can promote peace on the playing field,

“You want to demonstrate that through sport all people can live in the peace.”

Master Sergeant Silke Rottenberg is the goalkeeper for Germany,

“We take friendship with all the teams. The others are going to fight again and it is hard. Playing fair, this is a message of what we will do here.”

Germany won the opening game over the United States 4-3. Play continues all week, and the gold medal match will be played in Biloxi next Saturday.