McCullough made the remarks while addressing sports stakeholders at Gweru Memorial Library.
He is presently chairman of the Athlete Council within the US Soccer Federation and also serving his second term on the Board of Directors. McCullough represented the sport of soccer on the USOC Athlete Advisory Council for the 2004-8 term and is now serving as a Vice Chairman as part of the USOC leadership team for the 2008-12 term.
McCullough told the sports stakeholders in Gweru that sport in Zimbabwe has the potential to resolve strained relations between the country and the international community.
“We have seen cases where sport has reunited two countries in conflict and this can happen on the part of Zimbabwe.
“If say a friendly soccer match is organised between Zimbabwe and a country that it is in conflict with, that will provide a platform which can prove that after all the gap is narrow.
“Such a sporting event can bring together the warring citizens from the players to the politicians themselves together and conflict resolution will have started,” McCullough said.
He cited the example of the historic friendly match between US and Iran as an example. McCullough also held similar engagements with stakeholders in Harare and Bulawayo to sell the idea of sport being used in resolving conflict in Zimbabwe.
Its not the first time that McCollough has been involved on the issue of using sport as a conflict resolution strategy.
As a volunteer in South Africa during the 2010 World Cup, he served as Facilitator and keynote speaker on the ManUp Summit, a weeklong program that had 150 delegates from all over the world who gathered to develop domestic initiatives to stop violence against women and girls using sport and music as a tool. While in South Africa he also took on the responsibility to act as facilitator and key note speaker for FIFA’s Football for Hope youth initiative.
Post published in: Football